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Sunday, 12 October 2008, at 3:31 p.m.

Ruth Vail Conklin

Manasquan resident Ruth Vail Conklin died Thursday, Oct. 2 at Tenacre in Princeton.

She was 102 years old.

Mrs. Conklin was born in Rahway and lived for periods in Wall, Ocean Grove, Naples, Maine, and Philadelphia. She was a graduate of Neptune High School and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, and the Art Students League in New York City.

While an art student, Mrs. Conklin modeled for the late W. H. D. Koerner, Interlaken, a renowned illustrator and painter of western art whose illustrations appeared frequently in the Saturday Evening Post. She was a professional artist for almost 75 years, working in oil, watercolor and pastels.

She traveled and painted widely throughout the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe, and her subjects varied widely from the canals of Venice to the Twin Lights overlooking Sandy Hook. She painted portraits, flowers, murals and landscapes, but was noted for her seascapes, most of which were of waves, beaches, rocks and fishermen in the Shore area.

Some of Mrs. Conklin’s murals can be seen at Allaire State Park and in the PNC Bank in Manasquan. Some of her pen and ink drawings of fish and wildlife appeared in the Asbury Park Press in the 1960s and 1970s and in Press publications: Shore Area Fish and The Shore Catch.

Mrs. Conklin became interested in antique dolls in the 1930s and acquired a huge collection over her lifetime. Her fascination with dolls led her to establish the Roadside Studio on Atlantic Avenue in Wall, where she began to make character dolls and soon began to market them nationwide. Prior to and during World War II, she employed 25 people to make and market the dolls.

Mrs. Conklin later established the Ruth Vail Studio in Sea Girt and partnered with her daughter, the late Lucile Geiser, in the Naples Gallery, an antique business and art studio in Naples, Maine. She taught art classes for children and adults and conducted art demonstrations for more than 40 years.

Mrs. Conklin was one of the founders of the Manasquan River Group of Artists, a member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Association of Women Artists, the American Artists Professional League, the Society of New Jersey Artists, the Guild of Creative Art, the Asbury Park Society of Fine Arts, and the Governor William Livingston Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She was a member of the First Church of Christ the Scientist in Boston, Mass.

Three husbands predeceased her: Paul Geiser, John C. W. Bird and Stanley Conklin.

Surviving are her son, John H. Geiser; her stepson, Marshall Conklin; and her grandchildren: Diane Geiser of Naples, Maine; Joyce Schwaller of Dallas, Texas; and George Geiser of Wall.

She is also survived by two great-grandsons: Paul Geiser Stanford and David Geiser Stanford, both
of Naples, Maine.

A private funeral service will be held for family members only.

Star News Group; Monmouth County, NJ (10.09.08)