James L. Lockhart

James Leland Lockhart was born in 26 September 1912 in a small town (El Dorado) in northeastern Arkansas near the banks of the Mississippi River--a rustic setting that family said sealed his kinship with nature.

Working at his drafting table, illustrator 'Jim' Lockhart was never unnerved by the strangers that would watch him through the window.

Deer, raccoons, owls, songbirds and other critters would visit in the back yard or perch on the ledge of his Lake Forest home. They were his scampering, twittering inspiration as he concocted wild nature scenes.

"It sounds strange but the animals just seemed so safe there," said his daughter, Patricia Kendler. "It was like a sanctuary. They would just look in the window and watch him."

It was a region where "if you didn't hunt and fish, there was something wrong with you," Jim Lockhart said in a 1998 interview.

An inveterate doodler, Jim Lockhart never thought his hobby could become a vocation until he got some unexpected praise during the Great Depression.

While working as a laborer in a New Deal works project, a friend sent one of Jim Lockhart's sketches of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the White House. A response came a short time later, in Roosevelt's own hand, telling Jim Lockhart that he had a knack and should pursue art.

"That was all the encouragement he needed," Kendler said.

In the mid-1930s, Jim Lockhart moved to Chicago where he studied at the American Academy of Art and went on to work as an illustrator for many of the nation's prominent magazines of the era: Collier's, Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest. The Smithsonian Institution now holds some of his paintings, family said.

He was a successful commercial illustration artist for many companies. He did illustrated advertisements that appeared in several magazines including companies like Maxwell House Coffee, Standard Oil Company and Wrigley Chewing gum. He won the famed Artist's Guild Award for best painting in 1950. One of his baseball pictures hangs in Baseball's Hall of Frame in Cooperstown, New York. He painted calendar illustrations for the Gerlach Barklow calendar company including their highly successful Bluebird series.

Jim Lockhart even published two collections of his works, "Portraits of Nature" and "Wild America." He also worked as a commercial artist for General Electric and Coca-Cola but he was most proud of his nature scenes. He as also a devoted conservationist.

Over the years, he volunteered with several national conservation organizations such as the International Crane Society and the National Parks Conservation Association.

Often he produced limited edition prints that he sold to benefit wildlife groups such Ducks Unlimited. "His way of being an advocate was in showing the beauty of nature," Kendler said.

Since it was founded over 35 years ago, Jim Lockhart has been involved with the Lake Forest Open Lands Association, dedicated to preserving and restoring local land and ecology.

In 1998, the organization opened the Lockhart Family Nature Center in honor of Jim Lockhart.

James Leland Lockhart lived to a good age of 92 - however on Friday, 11 February 2005, he died in his home at Lake Forest, Illinois of heart failure. He was survived by his son, David, and four grandchildren.

A memorial service was held at 5 p.m. on 21 May 2005 at the Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. And he has been interned at Lake Forest Cemetery, Lake Forest, Lake County, Illinois.