The Saturday Evening Post cover, "Doctor and Doll II" featured Pop Hicks and Libby Beam, another Alhambra resident.

By Alhambra Resident Fame Rybicki

It's hard to imagine seeing one of America's best loved artists, Norman Rockwell, bicycling along Main Street in Alhambra, a briar pine clenched between his teeth. He was a familiar figure in New Rochelle, New York; Arlington, Vermont and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, but ALHAMBRA?

Yes, Rockwell first came to Alhambra in 1929 as a guest of his old friend, Clyde Forsythe, a successful cartoonist, whom Rockwell met in 1915 when they were both young New Rochelle artists. They had rented a corrugated barn that had once been the scupture studio of Frederic Remington, whom Rockwell greatly admired.

Rockwell was born February 3, 1894 in New York City. His maternal grandfather was an English artist, not overwhelmingly successful but who had great influence on him. Norman's talent became evident at age five when he began sketching. He was an unathletic loner who considered school a waste of time. In his sophomore year, he quit school so that he could enroll in art classes. By age 18, he was a full-time professional. In 1916, the same year he painted his first Saturday Evening Post cover, he married Irene O'Connor, a teacher.

Clyde Forsythe arrived in Alhambra in 1923, and built a home which he named Orange Blossom Manor, on the southeast corner of Alhambra Road and Almansor. A year later, he added a studio above the garage. This is where he worked, and later, Rockwell, too. Large windows faced north toward Mt. Wilson.

Rockwell remained in New York until Irene, his wife of 13 years divorced him. He suffered from depression so, at Forsythe's invitation, he came to Alhambra. He became acquainted with other artists who had studios on quaint Champion Place. They included Sam Hyde Harris who was commissioned to paint posters for the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railways; Frank Tenney Johnson, Charles Russell, and Jack Wilkinson Smith. One of the Champion Place studios was located in the home of well-known sculptor, Eli Harvey.

Harvey's across-the-street neighbor was an attorney, Alfred Barstow, whose daughter, Mary was a teacher. Barstow was Alhambra's first city attorney. The Forsythes introduced Rockwell to Mary, who made an immediate impression on Norman. He was 36, she was 22. Within three weeks, they were engaged. Three months later, they were married on April 17, 1930 in the Barstow garden. Not long after they were married, they left for New York.

While in Alhambra, he bicycled daily as he did for his entire life up until his 80s, and he was rarely ever seen without his briar pipe.

He consistently sought interesting faces for illustrations and he found a number of Alhambra residents to pose for him, including Mary's cousin, Rosemary Ketchum. One of his favorites was the janitor at the Methodist Church, who modeled for the Saturday Evening Post cover showing a man on a ladder, setting the time on the Chicago Marshall Field store clock.

The Saturday Evening Post cover, "Doctor and Doll II" seen in so many doctor's offices, featured Pop Hicks and Libby Beam, another Alhambra resident.

While living in Alhambra, he also painted several other Post covers including the Gary Cooper cover, May 24, 1930; the December 7, 1929 cover, "Merrie Christmas"; the April 12, 1930 cover, "Wet Paint," and "Catching the Big One," August 3, 1929.

On one of his later visits to Alhambra, he invited Loretta Young who had attended Ramona Convent with her sister, to pose for a Rockwell cover. However, he never completed it.

Rockwell and his Alhambra wife, Mary, had three sons: Jarvis (nicknamed Jerry), born in 1932 who became an artist; Thomas, born in 1933, who became a writer; and Peter, born in 1936, who became a sculptor with a studio in Paris.

As Rockwell became famous and was sought by presidents, movie producers and other people for assignments in foreign lands, he frequently fled to get away quietly to relax. The Rockwells made four or five trips yearly. They and their sons returned often to visit family, sometimes spending all summer in Alahambra. The Barstows eventually built an addition onto their home in 1935 to accommodate the Rockwells when they visited. The house and gardens remain essentially the same now as they did then.

Rockwell became sorely depressed again after Mary's death in 1959. Two years later, he married still another teacher, Molly Punderson. He died November 8, 1978.

In all, he painted approximately 2,000 works, 324 of which were for the Saturday Evening Post. He also illustrated for Look magazine, Literary Digest, Life, Boys' Life and Collier's. Many originals were lost in a 1943 disastrous fire that destroyed his Arlington, Vermont studio. His most famous works are the "Four Freedoms," painted for a touring exhibit to sell World War II bonds.