s Luraine Gertrude Tansey

Luraine Collins Tansey, born January 29,1918 in Manhattan Kansas to Merle D. and Amy B. Collins. She was raised in Marysville, CA, and lived in San Jose CA until 1999, when she moved to Bristol Rhode Island to be closer to her sons. A 1939 graduate of UC Berkeley, she had graduate degrees from Mills College, SJSU and NYU. During college she served as second violin in the Oakland Symphony Orchestra. During World War II, she was a Red Cross nurse at Camp Roberts (CA) with responsibility for providing art therapy to soldiers with mental trauma. An often exhibited painter, she was also a sculptor, woodworker, and photographer. She was an expert in early childhood development and had a unique capacity to make the full range of toys inexpensively out of every-day items. She was a slide librarian for the art history departments at Stanford University and UC Santa Cruz. An early adopter of computer technology in the 60's, she developed the art history slide classification system that is used at most universities around the world. She was a founding member and later president of the Art Libraries Society. She taught Art Appreciation and Art History at San Jose City and Evergreen Colleges for several decades before moving to Rhode Island, and was well loved by her many students. She was married to SJSU Art History Professor Richard G. Tansey for 51 years until his death in 1998. She was an invaluable part of his authorship of 7 editions of Helen Gardner's "Art Through the Ages." She has four sons, Professor Michael Tansey of Kansas City, Mark Tansey of Portsmouth RI and NYC, Charles Tansey of Bristol RI and Washington, DC and Professor Joel Tansey of Northampton MA. She has five grandchildren, Sarah, Allegra, Christopher, Michael and Caleb Tansey.