Rosemary Landsberger

Rosemary Landsberger, 84, well-known Bismarck artist and art teacher, died November 30, 2006, at St. Alexius Medical Center. Services will be held at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, December 6, at Church of the Ascension in Bismarck, with Rev. Marvin Klemmer officiating. Burial will be at St. Mary's Cemetery, Bismarck. Visitation will be Tuesday from 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM at Eastgate Funeral Service, Bismarck, where a rosary service will be held at 5:30 PM at the funeral home. Rosemary Landsberger was born on December 7, 1921, in Hazelton, North Dakota, the daughter of John B. and Elisabeth S. Sadler Landsberger. She attended grade and high school at Hazelton and was Valedictorian of her graduating class in 1939. She played the organ and directed the choir at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Hazelton. She attended State Teacher's College in Valley City, North Dakota, earning a degree in Education. She taught elementary and high school classes at Forbes and Hazelton which included various cultural activities. In 1952, Rosemary moved to Bismarck where she became active in local musical and theatrical circles. She sang the lead soprano roles in two productions of the Bismarck Light Opera Guild. She was active in Thursday Music Club and the Bismarck-Mandan Civic Music Association. In 1958, she produced the Miss North Dakota Pageant in Bismarck. Rosemary then became interested in the theater and directed six plays for the Bismarck-Mandan Community Theater, a forerunner of the present Dakota Stage Limited. She designed and created the stage sets for those plays and four plays directed by others. Rosemary wrote feature and society articles for Conrad Publishing Company newspapers in Bismarck and Mandan. Through her work with stage sets for the community theater organization, she became interested in the fine art of painting on canvas. She studied with several instructors sponsored by the Bismarck Recreation Department and at a number of summer workshops. In 1959, she attended the Instituto de Artes, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. In her two years there she concentrated on the coordination and creative use of color in paintings. She worked and painted in art galleries at Tampa, Florida, Taos, Mexico, and Los Angeles and Mendocino, California. Rosemary returned to Bismarck in 1962. She had many one-woman shows and art demonstrations throughout North Dakota. Her art is included in many private and public collections in the United States, Europe, and Mexico. She was a long-time member of the Bismarck Art Association and was active in their annual Fall exhibits. She directed the Fall show in 1965. A number of her students formed the Elan Gallery in 1970. In recent years this gallery was merged with the Bismarck Art Association to form the present Bismarck Art and Galleries Association. In 1964, Rosemary received the Citation Award from the Bismarck Art Association as the outstanding artist and promoter of the arts in North Dakota. She received a number of other awards and citations. Rosemary began teaching art in 1962 under the auspices of the Bismarck Recreation Department. In 1963, she began private classes in 35 North and South Dakota and Montana locations. She served as a judge for many art shows. In 1973, she was nominated as an outstanding woman in North Dakota as part of a state-wide selection by the North Dakota Women's Coalition, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the Greater North Dakota Association. In 1989, she created 31 oil paintings of North Dakota heritage inspired by the North Dakota Centennial Celebration in that year. Also in 1989, she received an Honorary Life Membership in Bismarck Art and Galleries Association. Rosemary received the 1991 Governor's Award for the Arts presented by Governor George Sinner on behalf of the North Dakota Council of the Arts. In 1997, she executed a large painting of North Dakota wildflowers for the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony. This painting hangs in the Clarion and Beth Larson Atrium of the Bell Mehus City Auditorium. Rosemary was a charter member of Gallery 522 in Bismarck where she held private art classes. In recent years she taught children and adults for the Sleepy Hollow Summer Classes. Rosemary is survived by two sisters, Theresa Stramer and Dolores Kuntz; one brother, Albert Landsberger, all of Bismarck; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Elisabeth; her brothers, Eugene, Jerome, Francis, Leo, and Florian; and her sisters, Eleanor Zeeb and Adaline Hurkes.

Rosemary Landsberger

December 7, 1921 - November 30, 2006