Las Vegas Review (03/Nov/1994) - Artist, mother, grandmother of actresses dies
Details
- article: Artist, mother, grandmother of actresses dies
- newspaper: Las Vegas Review (03/Nov/1994)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds (1963), Tippi Hedren
Article
Artist, mother, grandmother of actresses dies
Dorothea Hedren, an award-winning artist, and mother and grandmother to two actresses, has died in a Las Vegas nursing home at age 95.
The pianist and former schoolteacher, who died Monday, was the mother of actress Tippi Hedren of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the grandmother of Melanie Griffith, the star of numerous films including "Working Girl."
Hedren learned to play piano at age 9 in her native Boyd, Minn., where she would synchronize music to film in her father's silent movie house. She later taught first through eighth grades in a one-room schoolhouse in Lafayette, Minn.
She met her husband-to-be, Ben Hedren, there and was married to him for 54 years until his death in 1979.
"She was a woman who knew what she wanted out of life and did what she wanted to do," said Patricia Davis, her oldest child.
A trip to the Seattle World's Fair at age 72 sparked interest in art. She went on to win blue ribbons for her oil paintings at a show in Palm Springs in the 1970s. A painting of a Swiss castle won a blue ribbon at a German art show.
A memorial service for the eight-year Las Vegas resident will be at 2 p.m. Friday at her nursing home, Integrated Health Services. Burial will be in Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, Calif.
She is survived by two daughters, three grandsons, three granddaughters and five great-grandchildren.
