Elinor Tibbets Van Ingen McDade Died On April 11

Elinor McDade

Elinor Tibbets Van Ingen McDade, a much-loved artist, gardener, gallery owner, yoga teacher and longtime resident of Sag Harbor, died on April 11 at the Stony Brook University Hospital following a massive brain hemorrhage.

Born in Seattle in 1922, she grew up on the West Coast, moving to Southern California, where she worked during World War II for the Boeing Aircraft Company and an early marriage ended in divorce.

In the 1950s, she joined the U.S. State Department and was sent to Vietnam, where she met her future husband, Colonel Robert McDade, who was stationed there with the U.S. Army.

From Saigon, she went to Paris, where she worked as executive assistant to U.S. Ambassador Amory Houghton. In Paris, her path again crossed with that of Col. McDade. When Ambassador Houghton returned to the United States, he asked her to work for him in New York at Steuben Glass. While in the city, she also worked as a model and started painting her witty miniatures of small animals.

Later, she discovered and fell in love with Sag Harbor. With Col. McDade, she bought a house on High Street, where they were married in 1974.

A two-year stint as second in command of an army base in the Canal Zone took the McDades to Panama, where Mrs. McDade collected appliqué molas made by the Kuna women of the San Blas Islands and started teaching yoga to the army wives.

Upon her husband’s retirement, the couple returned to Sag Harbor and bought the former Provisions store at the corner of Henry and Division streets. In Sag Harbor, they took the old local name of the neighborhood and opened the Goat Alley Gallery. For the next 23 years, it was a part of the East End art scene.

The Gallery’s annual “725” show for artists with Sag Harbor phone numbers was a popular one. “We felt so special,” said figure painter Linda Capello, who, with her husband, sculptor John Capello, was always included. “If you had a 725 number, you were cool—part of the in-crowd,” she said.

For more than 30 years, at 8:30 a.m. every Monday and Friday, the gallery also served as a yoga classroom for a stream of local ladies and a few men; Mrs. McDade kept them limber, fit and in touch with local happenings.

She had a wide range of interests and was a strong supporter of the Sag Harbor Friends of the Library, the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons, the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and the Sag Harbor Historical Society. She loved music and dancing from jazz to opera and ballet. Her small garden was an ever-changing delight of seasonal flowers, a bird bath and feeders for both birds and squirrels.

“Age did not diminish her passion for life,” said writer Ursula Hegi, a yoga regular. “Elinor was a role model for me. She has been one of the most significant teachers in my life.”

More than anything else, Ms. McDade loved the water and snorkeling. Her beach chair midway at Long Beach was a regular gathering place for her many friends most sunny afternoons from mid-May until October. Sea creatures, especially turtles, along with cats, rabbits, mice and mushrooms provided subjects for her carefully observed paintings that ranged from large canvasses of elephants and giraffes down to miniatures of butterflies and bees.

Longtime friend and North Haven resident Francine Silverblank said, “Elinor befriended everyone and did what she could to light up their lives, and that is special!”

Ms. McDade is survived by cousins in Seattle. The gallery at 200 Division Street will show a selection of her paintings at a farewell reception for her many friends on Sunday, April 22, from 4 to 6 p.m. Her ashes will be scattered at a later date.