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Brandywine mourns the loss of Betsy James Wyeth

Courtesy of the Wyeth Family Archives
Betsy James Wyeth, 1968

A woman instrumental in creating the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania has passed away.

 

Betsy James Wyeth died Tuesday; she was 98-years-old.

 

During her lifetime, Wyeth was a published author, art collector and a driving force in the career of her husband, artist Andrew Wyeth - serving as his muse, business manager and chief archivist of his work. 

She was only 17-years-old when she met a 22-year-old Andrew Wyeth in Cushing, Maine in 1939. They married a year later and moved to Chadds Ford.  Their marriage spanned nearly seven decades before Andrew’s death in 2009.

Betsy Wyeth is survived by her two sons, a daughter-in-law, one granddaughter and several nieces and nephews.

The Brandywine River Museum of Art is currently closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but when it reopens, it plans to honor the life of Betsy Wyeth with a memorial tribute of 18 Andrew Wyeth works depicting his wife and muse.

 

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.