Today@Sam Article
Museum Receives Houston Family Painting Donation
Oct. 20, 2016
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
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| Virginia resident Joseph Saunders delivers a painting of Margaret Belle Houston, the daughter of Sam Houston Jr., to Sam Houston Memorial Museum curator of collections Michael Sproat. The painting, by Houston Jr.'s daughter Katrina, was owned by Saunders's mother-in-law, Beverly Keener Doeg. —Photos by Mac Woodward |
Story by Michael Sproat.
On the morning of Sept. 20, Joseph Saunders, from Chester, Virginia, walked into the Sam Houston Memorial Museum with a painting of a mature woman with hazel eyes and dark hair, with faint hints of what appear to be greying highlights.
The signature on the bottom of the portrait read “K Houston.”
The great-granddaughter of Gen. Sam Houston, Katrina Houston painted the portrait of her mother, Margaret Belle Houston, the poet, actress and playwright.
Thanks to Saunders family’s generosity, the piece of Houston family history now hangs in the Sam Houston Memorial Museum.
The painting is the museum’s second of Margaret Belle Houston painted by Katrina.
“(The first is) a painting of a much younger woman, perhaps inspired from one of the pictures she may have seen hanging in her house growing up,” said Michael Sproat, museum curator of collections. “Many Houston friends and family descendants have donated images, pictures or paintings to the museum over the years.”
Saunders first saw the portrait hanging on the wall of the home of his mother-in-law, Beverly Keener Doeg, of Hopewell, Virginia.
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| The newly donated Margaret Belle Houston portrait rests with other paintings in the Sam Houston Memorial Museum collection made by Katrina Houston, great granddaughter of Gen. Sam Houston. |
Sparking his interest, he asked his mother-in-law who the woman was in the portrait and got a lesson in Texas history, the Houston family’s history and his own family history as well.
“Turns out that Beverly’s parents, William and Frances Keener, retired in the late 1950s from the Hercules plant in Hopewell, Virginia, and moved to St. Petersburg, Florida,” Sproat said. “There they became friends with St. Petersburg resident Margaret Belle Houston and her daughter Katrina.”
According to Joseph’s wife Allison, it was Frances who became friends with Margaret and took pies and casseroles to her when Margaret’s maid was off; Frances also told Allison that she had taken care of Margaret one time when Margaret was sick.
“It was after that caregiving episode that Margaret gave the portrait to Frances, who passed it on to Beverly, who then passed it on to Joseph’s wife Allison,” Sproat said.
Joseph persuaded her, after seeking out the Sam Houston Memorial Museum, to donate the art to the museum.
“As an artist, I told my wife that I think I should try to get the portrait into the hands of the Houston family if at all possible,” said Saunders at his visit to the museum. “The portrait needed to be where it needed to be; not with us. The effort I exercised in the search for descendants has led to the return of the portrait, executed by her daughter Katrina, back to the State of Texas and into the care of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum.”
Katrina was the last descendant of Sam Houston Jr.’s line, the eldest of the eight children by Gen. Sam and Margaret Houston.
Her mother, Margaret Belle Houston, born in October 1876 became great friends with Grace Longino Cox, then director at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum.
With Cox’s assistance, many personal relics and historic artifacts from the Houston family were donated to the museum by Margaret Belle in the mid-1950s, including several of Katrina’s paintings.
Margaret Belle died June 22, 1966, just shy of her 90th birthday.
“Every item in our museum tells a story. With this wonderful donation, we now have another story to add to the Sam Houston Jr. narrative,” said Mac Woodward, current director of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum.
For more information about the Sam Houston Memorial Museum or how you can help with this item or other objects in the collections, visit samhoustonmemorialmuseum.com or call 936.294.1832.
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