Yvonne Johannes Donham

My husband graduated from Columbia Missouri School of Journalism in approximately 1966. The three of us moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, shortly afterwards where he began a job with the Associated Press. William, nicknamed Bucky, later became a political reporter with the Honolulu Star Bulletin. After divorcing, I began a career as a legal secretary for corporate law firms in Hawaii, Boston and Little Rock, AR before retiring.

I do Landscape Plein-Air Art Painting in oil and water. All my work is currently sold. I hope to start a new phase soon. I collect current and vintage cookbooks. I enjoy cooking and engage in patio gardening.

I'm thankful for my mid-western upbringing in Bloomington and the morals, ethics and etiquette it instilled in all of us. It also gave me the voice and all-American accent for which I've received compliments my entire life.

When Laura received a scholarship to Wellesley College in Boston in 1981, I accepted a job in Boston to be near her. We had lost my father a few years after leaving Bloomington and returning to Arkansas, the home state of my mother. My widowed mother moved to Boston with me until Laura finished school. Afterwards, Mother and I moved back to Hawaii until she became ill in 1993. At that point we moved back to Arkansas where Mother's family originated and where she had grown up. My siblings, David and Patty, also lived there. Mother has since passed away, Laura lives in California, and David, an injured survivor of Viet Nam, and I reside together in Siloam Springs, AR.

I've stayed in touch with my artistic side by studying oil and water painting with several famous depression era artists. I believe the success of my accomplishment, in this area, is that all my works are currently sold. I am starting a new phase and will have some of my new paintings posted here when completed.