Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: May 15, 1911 - Mary Alice Hadley




image from hadleypottery.com


From the Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Mary Alice (Hale) Hadley, potter, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on May 15, 1911, to Frank R. and Hattie Alice Hale. She attended Indiana public schools and Indiana State University in Terre Haute, and graduated from Depauw College at Greencastle, Indiana, in 1933. At Depauw she met George Hadley, whom she married in 1930. In 1935, when the Hadleys were living in New York City, she took art classes at Columbia University. In 1939, after the Hadleys moved to Louisville, Mary Alice was given a boat, and unable to find dinnerware suitable for boating on the river, she decided to make her own. Friends in New York City and Chicago, impressed by Hadley's work, showed it to others, and orders began to arrive at her home for mugs, plates, and platters. The earthenware pieces were hand painted with cartoons of pigs, chickens, horses, farmers, or sheep, before being glazed, mostly in shades of blue and green. Hadley created a children's pottery series and also did custom designs.

Hadley's first commercial outlet was a gift shop, for which she filled special orders personally. In 1945 Hadley Pottery opened in an old factory on Story Avenue in Louisville. Mary Alice Hadley died on December 26, 1965, in Louisville and was cremated. George Hadley died on January 4, 1991. Hadley Pottery continues to operate.

See

Grady Clay, Jr., "Made in Louisville," and Marion Porter, "Charm from Clay," Louisville Courier-Journal Magazine, Oct. 8, 1950.
Source from UK Libraries:

Payne, Warren. Clear as Mud : Early 20th Century Kentucky Art Pottery. Paris, KY: Cane Ridge Pub. House, 2010. Print.
NK4025.K4 C54 2010, Fine Arts Library

Other Sources:
M.A. Hadley History
http://hadleypottery.com/history.html

Hadley Potteryhttp://hadley.retrovenue.com/

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