Louise C. Bishop, longtime philanthropist, dies at 98
By CRAIG BASSE
Published August 10, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - Louise C. Bishop, a philanthropist with a special affection for the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts and widow of syndicated cartoonist Wally Bishop, has died at 98.
Mrs. Bishop, who also was a benefactor of the Florida Orchestra and the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, died Monday (Aug. 8, 2005) at home.
"An era has passed," museum president Carol Upham said Tuesday. "She loved the museum, and we loved her. She helped to found and create the incredible institution we have become.
"She was an incredible person."
Mrs. Bishop and her husband, creator of the long-running Muggs and Skeeter comic strip that once appeared in hundreds of American and foreign newspapers, were early trustees on the museum board, Upham said.
He died in 1982.
She got interested in the museum "from the time it was being built," said her daughter, Mary Joan Mann, of St. Petersburg. "She thought it was magnificent for the city to have and always supported it. She never lost her interest in it."
In mid March, she attended a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the museum, where a gallery is named after her and her husband.
"The gallery is always there to remind us of her love for the museum," Upham said.
Over the years, Mrs. Bishop also contributed to the Bishop Day Care Center at the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children.
For several of PARC's black tie parties and for benefit teas for the Women's Auxiliary of St. Anthony's Hospital, she opened the grounds of her white Mediterranean style mansion built by Perry Snell.
The Florida Orchestra, in recognition of her gifts, presented its Golden Baton Award to her in 1992.
She had been a member of the Orchestra Guild since it was organized in 1963 as the St. Petersburg Symphony Guild.
Mrs. Bishop also was a benefactor of St. Anthony's Hospital Foundation and gave generously to the Great Explorations children's museum.
At the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, she endowed the Louise and Wally Bishop Leadership Ethics Program. Born Louise Carson in Evansville, Ind., she studied at Ferry Hall Prep, Lake Forest, Ill., and majored in piano at King-Smith Studio School, Washington, D.C. She and Bishop were married at her parents' home in Evansville in 1936.
Two years later, they bought and began to restore Snell's Italianate villa on Brightwaters Boulevard.
She had wintered here with her parents for many years, and on one of those occasions someone introduced her to Bishop, whose Muggs and Skeeter comic strip once ran in the St. Petersburg Times.
"It was at a party at the yacht club," she recalled in 1996. "We dated about a year, and then married."
Mrs. Bishop's memberships included the Junior League of St. Petersburg.
In addition to her daughter Mary Joan Mann, survivors include a son, Wallace B. Jr., Oldsmar; eight grandchildren, Vicky Mann, St. Petersburg; Sam Mann III, Gold Canyon, Ariz.; Wally Bishop Mann, Mill Valley, Calif.; Wendy Krop, Monrovia, Md.; Christina Thomas, Pembroke Pines, N.C.; Mary Burrall, Mount Airy, Md.; Susan Anthony, Clearwater; and Wally Bishop III, Largo; and 16 great grandchildren.
Friends may call from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Anderson-McQueen Funeral & Cremation Centers-N.E. St. Petersburg, 2201 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the funeral home with burial at Royal Palm Cemetery South.
Information from Times files was used in this obituary.