Jeanette Cole: Passion for art results in $1M family gift to SP Art Museum

Jeanette Cole had a deep love of art, and her docent duties at Santa Paula Art Museum allowed her to indulge that passion to her heart’s content. And although Jeanette was so inspired by the paintings that surrounded her that she planned to take up painting, she passed away on September 3, 2011.

Now those brush strokes that Jeanette, already a recognized crafter, had looked forward to will be on a different canvas, her beloved Santa Paula Art Museum, where a $1 million gift by the Lecil “Lee” Cole Family will establish the “Jeanette Cole Art Center.” Jeanette, one of the first docents at the Santa Paula Art Museum, was dedicated to the museum and the works it held, as well as to Executive Director Jennifer Orcutt Heighton.

Jeanette, said her husband Lee, “was so grateful to all the many people that worked so hard to make the Art Museum a reality, and to Jennifer for doing such a great job managing the museum. Jeanette really wanted the museum to be a success and this donation on her behalf will help make that happen.” On Friday Lee Cole, accompanied by the couple’s children Guy Cole and Suzanne Cole, visited the museum to formalize the donation, which Lee said he had thought about since Jeanette’s sudden passing.

Jeanette was born in Louisberg, Missouri on December 20, 1940 and came to California with her family in 1954. She attended Santa Paula High School, graduating in 1958, and on October 5 of that same year she married her high school sweetheart Lee. 

In 1960 Jeanette began work with Santa Paula Savings & Loan, where she rose through the ranks and was ultimately promoted to insurance agent for the company. She retired in 1985 to devote more of her time to helping expand the family’s ranching operations and to her hobbies. She was devoted to her four grandchildren, and cherished every moment spent with them.  

According to Ginger Gherardi, a Museum director, “Jeanette was a tremendous advocate for the museum, one of its first docents, a great salesperson in the gift shop, and she always took the time to talk to museum visitors. She was a joy and a wonderful asset to our museum.”

“We are absolutely overjoyed with the extremely generous gift from the Cole family that will carry the name of Jeanette Cole, our cherished friend and docent,” said Bill Orcutt, president of Santa Paula Art Museum Board of Directors. “The gift will help make a lasting contribution to the arts in Santa Paula, and serve as a permanent reminder of Jeanette and all she contributed to the community.”

Lee noted Jeanette’s volunteer duties with the museum caused her to consider painting, and she was particularly fond of one artist. “She talked a lot about Douglas Shively; she liked the scenes he painted, the sycamore trees, the local scenery” that often was the focus of his paintings. 

“Jeanette really enjoyed Shively’s work.” And, Lee noted, Jeanette would have particularly enjoyed the backdrop at Friday’s gathering at the museum: the Douglas Shively Retrospective that includes not only more than 60 paintings, but also his personal sketchbooks, journals and other memorabilia. 

Jeanette also was also a Master Gardener and enjoyed her studies and time spent at the UC Hansen Trust Faulkner Farm. “Oh, Jeanette really studied the history of the farm and knew everything about it, and she was really proud of being a Master Gardener.”

But probably what she had the most passion for was the museum that now is the recipient of the family gift: “She was so committed to the museum,” said Lee, and “it was one the last things she actually talked about. We are very proud to have her name on the building.”

Gherardi said the Santa Paula Art Museum Board plans to use the “generous $1 million Cole gift as part of this capital expansion and to seek grant funds to complete the project. The Cole gift will enable implementation of the Phase II and the Jeanette Cole Art Center expansion to get underway.”