Gertrude Woolf Lighton

Gertrude Woolf Lighton was born on December 19, 1876 in Leavenworth, Kansas. When Gertrude was 18, she studied painting with George Van Millet. In her work, she painted in oils and pastels. She also wrote poems.

In 1930, Lighton renovated a building at 1718 Holly with her own funds as a place for studios for artists and writers known as Lighton Studios. The studios opened in the fall of 1930. It was also the headquarters for the Kansas City Society of Artists. In the building were studios for artists, and a tea room known as the Red Lantern. This space was a gathering space for musicals, books reviews and art exhibitions. Local artists who rented the studio spaces included: Ilah M. Kibbey, John W. Orth, Robert Haslam, Emma Siboni, Gale Stockwell and Emmett Craig. In 1942, Lighton moved her studio to 4890 Main Street, and opened an antique shop there. After she moved her studio, the Lighton Studio building became the Lighton Club, a place for high school students operated by the Mattie Rhodes Center, then a building for returning soldiers from World War II. It was reopened as artist studios in 1953, and the building was destroyed by fire in 1962.

Lighton was also a patron of the arts. She was a trustee of the Kansas City Art Institute, and she was the second vice-president of the Friends of Art of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, and she was one of the founding members of the Kansas City Society of Artists.

She died on September 18,1961 in Kansas City, Missouri.