User:Myivories88/Louise Schabacker

Louise Schabacker, an illustrator, designer and watercolorist, was born in Erie, PA on September 6, 1903. She was the daughter of William and Minnie Schabacker. She attended Central High School in Erie and began her art studies there under Mrs. Florence Bassett. She was also interested in music and her father encouraged her to study the piano. She studied music for a year at Syracuse University, but found that she preferred to study art. On Bassett’s recommendation, she attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Art or Parsons School from 1923-24. She completed their three-year program in two years, studying fashion illustration. While in school, she began working for Lucille Stass, Inc. as a fashion sketcher. Schabacker continued her studies at the Paris branch of the school from 1925-26.

When she returned to New York City, Schabacker became chief fashion illustrator for Wanamaker’s department store. After two years, she became a freelance artist, continuing work in fashion illustration and eventually expanding her oeuvre to design book jackets, beginning with Bellamy Partridge’s Get a Horse, and including those for Hand in the Glove by Rex Stout and Call Back Love. After 18 years in New York, Schabacker returned to Erie permanently in 1941, due to her mother’s declining health.

In Erie, Schabacker continued painting, working in watercolors and creating flowers, small animals and other subjects. Through an interest in interior design, she began designing wallpaper for Richard Thibeaut Inc., in New York City and later, for the Schmitz-Horning Co., a firm in Cleveland specializing in hotel and restaurant wallpaper design.

Her work was shown in several locations; in Erie, shows were given at the Union Bank building, the Westwood Racquetball Club, Yahn Interiors , Erie Public Museum and Villa Maria College. Additionally, her work was presented at a hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Louise Schabacker died September 12, 1987 at age 84, after suffering a stroke in July of that year.