Virginia Dooley, 1943-2008: Taos figure was force behind famous Navajo artist

Dooley, R.C. Gorman worked together for three decades as a formidable pair

| The Taos News

4/29/2008 - 4/30/08

They say behind every great man is a great woman. Taos artist R.C. Gorman had two: Virginia Dooley and Rose Roybal. And now all of them are gone.

Dooley died Friday at Holy Cross Hospital in Taos. Cause of death has not been released, although she was known to have been in failing health for some time.

The three were a formidable presence during their heyday on Ledoux Street while running Gorman's Navajo Gallery. Roybal, who died in 2002, was officially Gorman's housekeeper and cook, but she was more. Many remember her as his "straight man," while Dooley was his dedicated protector, publicist, promoter and friend. No one could get close to Gorman without first passing inspection by Dooley.

Gorman died in December 2005.

Dooley was born March 7, 1943, in New York City, the daughter of Raymond N. Dooley and Lovilla Frederick Dooley. She moved with her family to central Illinois, where her father was director of student services at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington and later president of Lincoln College in Lincoln, Ill.

Her mother died while Dooley was a child. She and her brothers were later adopted by her father's second wife, Florence Adams Dooley. Virginia Dooley attended Lincoln public schools and Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wis.

After schooling in Wisconsin, she studied piano and voice in Chicago. Upon graduation, she moved to Arizona, where she taught music to Navajo students at St. Michael's Mission School. As a teacher, she helped inspire her students by using the example of how a Navajo artist like Gorman could achieve success in the non-Indian world.

It was after she took a job teaching music to Taos schoolchildren that she met Gorman, who at the time was known as a promising but unknown artist. She posed for some of Gorman's early drawings and paintings and became both a close friend and early promoter of his work.

She launched an early publicity campaign of posters and bumper stickers with the legend "Who Is R. C. Gorman?" and a silhouette of Gorman's profile — an image that became his signature logo.

For more than three decades, they worked together establishing an artistic legacy that continues to this day. They traveled extensively visiting galleries and meeting collectors of his work, including film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Lee Marvin and other celebrities.

Virginia Dooley and Gorman loved to entertain, frequently hosting elaborate dinner parties at his house or hers. She was an accomplished and creative cook. Early in her days in Taos, she won a national baking contest for her recipe for turquoise margarita pie, and she collaborated with Gorman on a series of books called Nudes and Foods, which feature his drawings and recipes she collected or created.

She was a talented pianist and an opera lover, making annual trips to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to, in her words, "overdose on opera." She also wrote witty and insightful reviews of the Santa Fe Opera productions for several state and local publications — reviews that were occasionally amusingly hard on the lead tenor.

Virginia Dooley is survived by her two brothers, William Paul Dooley of Kent, Conn., and Raymond W. Dooley of Belgrade, Serbia, as well as numerous cousins, most of whom came to love Taos while attending family reunions she organized at her home.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Friday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. Funeral mass will be held at a time to be announced.