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1674-6 Pancoast Family p=1 INVALID COMMAND. p=1 RANK 1 OF 1, PAGE 1 OF 6, DB MHP WED APR 14 1993 ED: FINAL SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 31.48" LONG ILLUST: photo: Katherine*PANCOAST* SOURCE: DONNA GEHRKE Herald Staff Writer DATELINE: MEMO: MIAMI PIONEER, CERAMIC ARTIST*KAY*PANCOAST*DIES Katherine*"Kay"*Pancoast*lived more than nine decades of adventure as a nationally known ceramic artist, Miami pioneer, orchid grower, alligator neighbor, architect, community activist and wallpaper designer. Into her 80s, she was a force in the art world, creating ceramic tile murals and three-dimensional art that graced public museums and private homes. Her death Monday ended an extraordinary life. She was 92 . "It 's a kind of magic that I have fallen into, " she once said. "Sometimes I can hardly wait to get up in the morning. " Known for her iris-blue eyes and silver hair, *Pancoast* RANK 1 OF 1, PAGE 2 OF 6, DB MHP emerged as a woman ahead of her time. She did it all -- work and family -- before people even talked about it. Before Miami architecture exploded with tropical hot pinks and yellows, *Pancoast*was painting her house mango orange. Before the world was worried about vanishing wetlands, *Pancoast*carefully designed her home to leave intact the surrounding hammocks. She loved to talk about her "neighbors" -- flowers, turtles, water birds, even alligators. "We root for the alligators, " she once said. Modest and quiet, *Pancoast*credited luck and hard work -- never talent -- for her successes. Admirers thought otherwise. Her friends knew her as warm and gracious, someone who was more interested in other's tales rather than talking about her own. *Pancoast*could have easily lived as a socialite married to one of Miami 's best-known architects, the late Russell*Pancoast. * But she plunged into activity: During World War II, she led a massive volunteer effort to entertain 4 million soldiers passing through Miami. She then emerged as a wallpaper designer who splashed South Florida's subtropic -- flaming poincianas, seagrapes, oleanders RANK 1 OF 1, PAGE 3 OF 6, DB MHP and palms -- onto walls. New York firms quickly bought up her designs, which were handprinted by silk screen. In her 50s, when others slow down, *Pancoast*took on ceramic art -- after taking just 10 lessons . Four decades later, her award-winning work graces museums, banks, libraries and private homes, from Miami's Fairchild Tropical Garden to Canada's Confederation of the Arts museum on Prince Edward Island. "You could say I caught the ceramic virus, but good! " she told The Miami Herald in 1967 . Alfred Browning Parker, long-time family friend and noted architect, lauded*Pancoast*as "an excellent craftsman" who combined creativity with a practical sense of how to mold clay into art. "She knew her materials, how to stretch them, " Parker said. Said her daughter, Martha Grafton: "She had a lot of energy and used it as wisely and well as anyone I can think of. She did a tile panel for my house when she was 80 years and it 's just stunning. " The 6-foot-by-4-foot tile mural features*Pancoast's*beloved flora: a light beige heliconia, a ginger relative that resembles a bird of paradise. *Pancoast*was born in North Tonawanda, N.Y. She learned RANK 1 OF 1 , PAGE 4 OF 6, DB MHP early about independence. Her mother was left a widow when *Pancoast*was only 3 . *Pancoast's*father, a civil engineer, died of tuberculosis. *Pancoast's*mother then became a home economics pioneer at Rutgers University. She encouraged her daughter to take up a career as well. *Pancoast, *part of the class of '20, was one of the few women then to study architecture at Cornell University. There she met a kindergarten acquaintance -- fellow architecture student Russell*Pancoast. * They both worked in architectural offices before marrying. In 1923, they moved to Miami*Beach*-- the city that Russell *Pancoast's*grandfather, John Collins, developed. For two decades, *Pancoast*threw herself into civic work and raised two children. During World War II, she was enlisted to oversee Servicemen's Pier, which entertained 4 million soldiers and used 18, 000 volunteers . After the war, she focused on her art. She rolled her clay like pie dough and carved the tiles before firing them. She once built a studio off her bedroom so she could get up in the middle of the night to take tiles from the kilns. RANK 1 OF 1 , PAGE 5 OF 6, DB MHP "Her work encompassed furniture, lighting fixtures, wall panels and 27 major architectural murals, including work installed in Boston, Orlando, Boca Raton, Miami*Beach*and the Coral Gables library, " said her son, architect Lester*Pancoast. * Her most ambitious work: Five large carved tile murals that depicted Lord Nelson's ships. The man who commissioned the work for his Lord Nelson Hotel in Nova Scotia was so impressed that he donated it to the Canadian museum. In 1958, *Pancoast*and her husband, along with their son, designed a Snapper Creek open-air house that opened onto the small Elbow Lake and two acres of natural hammock. It instantly won national awards. New York's Museum of Modern Art included it in its permanent files on the history of architecture of America. After her husband died in 1972 , *Pancoast*moved into a Coconut Grove home that she and her son designed. She filled it with her beloved orchids and palms. "This is the rain forest -- and I 'm the rain, " she once said. As was typical of her unassuming nature, she wanted no 01 memorial service. The family is honoring that wish. In addition to her two children, *Pancoast*has four RANK 1 OF 1, PAGE 6 OF 6, DB MHP grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Fairchild Tropical Garden or the*Kay*Pancoast*Ceramic Studio at the Bakehouse Art Complex. ADDED TERMS: *pancoast*obituary END OF DOCUMENT.