Beadie Zimmerman, former Osceola Parade Marshall, supporter and contributor to the Osceola Appreciation Days,
which later became the Osceola Bluegrass Festival and now the Osceola Music Festival.
This is an original oil painting of Osceola Elementary School on Lincolnway. Bea captured this, and other Osceola landmarks in paintings just before they were demolished, in the name of progress.
Bea Zimmerman created these sketches for mugs of historic places in Osceola. Back in the 80's she donated them to Osceola to raise money for the Music Festival. Do you recognize these places?
This is a photo of Bea Hartig Zimmerman. She was riding in the Osceola Memorial Day Parade, honored as the Grand Marshall.
BEATRICE HARTIG-ZIMMERMAN
March 29, 1904 Chicago, Illinois - July 1, 1998 Osceola, IN
Years in area:
She moved from Chicago to St. Joseph County when she was in her teens.
Education:
She studied under a scholarship at the Chicago Art Institute for her high school years.
Memberships:
St. Joe Valley Chapter of the American Artists Professional League (charter member in
1936); Northern Indiana Artists (charter member and Historian); St. Joe Valley Watercolor Society
(charter member and first president); Midland Academy of Art (charter member), Gallery in the Garrett,
Mishawaka; People Painters of the YWCA
Local Exhibits:
1957 Osceola School, Osceola, IN; 1972 YWCA solo exhibit, South Bend; Midland
Academy of Art; NIA; Hoosier Salon; Mishawaka Public Library
Work in Permanent Public Collections:
Mishawaka Public Library; Osceola United Methodist Church;
Moran School, Osceola;
Mediums:
Oil, Watercolor
Biography:
The daughter of Arthur Hartig (another area artist) Beatrice had her own art studio at 1321 Lincolnway
West in Osceola, Indiana. She received a scholarship to attend a commercial art school in Chicago and
studied with Charles Schroeder and Emil Jacques.
She began exhibiting her realistic oil landscapes, portraits and still life and won numerous awards
throughout her lifetime. In 1949 her painting “Cove Lake Kentucky” traveled with the Hoosier Salon
exhibit to the Smithsonian. In 1970 she won the annual Christmas Seal Design Contest sponsored by the
St. Joseph County Tuberculosis League.
Often Beatrice’s works were exhibited along with her father, Arthur, and her sister, Genevieve who were
also painters. Later another sister, Kathryn, also exhibited with her. She painted every day and painted
over 1000 pieces during her lifetime.
Beatrice was a librarian at the Osceola branch of the Mishawaka Public Library. She was the pianist and
organist at the Osceola Methodist Church for thirty years. Her brother Donald H. Hartig was a
photoengraver in South Bend.
In 2014 she was included as an outstanding artist in the book “Fine Arts of the South Bend Region” (from
1840-2000). Her paintings illustrate poems in “The Pugilist”. The poet-author is her son,
Jack Zimmerman
Sources:
SB News-Times 1936
SB Tribune – 3/23/1950, 3/28/1955, 3/8/1962, 7/14/1982 pic, on-line obits/St.Joe Cty Pub. Library
The Artistic Heritage of South Bend 1930-1970 by Oberhausen, Judy and Zimmerman, Beatrice Hartig
SBMA scrapbook 1962- 1976