Artist Glenna Goodacre, Known For Sculpting Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Dead At 80
Renowned sculptor who created the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington D.C. and one-time Park Cities resident Glenna Goodacre died April 13 at age 80 at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Her son-in-law, singer Harry Connick Jr., who’s married to actress Jill Goodacre Connick, announced Glenna’s death on Instagram.
The Washington Post reports Goodacre’s health had been in decline in recent years and she’d been in the hospital in February for routine surgery.
Her work includes a 7-foot-6-inch sculpture of President Ronald Reagan, unveiled at his presidential library in California, a monument to victims of the Irish famine in Philadelphia, her design of the Sacagawea dollar, which went into circulation in 2000, and, arguably her best-known work, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial sculpture, which was dedicated on Veterans Day in 1993, according to the Post.
She studied art at Colorado College, where she met her first husband, William. After she graduated in 1961, she returned to her hometown of Lubbock, where she started her career as a painter and began raising her children, Jill and Tim.
Her first small bronze sculpture was cast in 1969 by Forrest Fenn, who had a foundry and gallery in Lubbock at the time.
Glenna moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1974 and made a career shift from painting to sculpture. She then moved to Santa Fe after her divorce in 1983.
She married Dallas attorney C L Mike Schmidt in 1995. The couple had a home in the Park Cities area for several years as well as a home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
She retired from her art work and public appearances in October 2016.
Goodacre received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from her alma mater, Colorado College, in 1994, and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Texas Tech University in 1996, among other honors and awards.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Glenna lived down the street from my mom and she was loved in Dallas