This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Mary Isabelle Wheeler was born in Manor, Travis County, Texas on December 24, 1867. She was the daughter of John Gill Wheeler and his wife Maggie H. Brown who married in February of 1867; she was born later that same year. Her father established the 2nd mercantile store in Manor in 1869, and at the time of his death in 1909, he had retired as a successful merchant and banker.
She attended the Columbia Female Institute in Columbia, Tennessee, an Episcopal finishing school for girls noted for its high standard of education, and also the Ward Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. It is interesting to note that in 1870 the Ward Seminary was ranked among the top three educational institutions for women in the nation.
Wheeler married Stanley Torrance Cooney of Nashville in May of 1888 and lived in Tennessee until her husband’s death in 1915.
Artistically, Wheeler studied under Sarah Ward Connelly, Pearl Saunders, Raymond Everett and Jose Arpa. In 1909 the artist traveled extensively through the United States, England and much of Europe. At one time she maintained a studio in New York and also Paris.
Returning to Texas, she lived in Austin and Houston before finally settling in San Antonio. There, she was an active participant in the San Antonio art community and the Southern States Art League. She exhibited throughout the 1920’s and into the 1940’s. In San Antonio she was also a member of the Coppini Academy of Fine Arts. Originally found in 1945 as the Classic Arts Fraternity, it was renamed after its founder, Pompeo Luigi Coppini (1870-1957), in 1950. She died in San Antonio in 1957.
Written and submitted by Edward P. Bentley, Art Historian, Lansing, Michigan
Source:
Bosque Crossing Gallery web site; Wheeler Family History, 1965, by Edward Earle Wheeler. San Antonio Genealogical Society.
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