Commercial artist Pat Denman was good at drawing faces, enough so that he got a request from a U.S. president to do a charcoal portrait of him.
Mr. Denman was deeply moved by the assassination of John F. Kennedy and drew a striking charcoal portrait of the late president, which he sent to Mrs. Kennedy. "President Johnson saw it and was so impressed that he asked Dad to do a similar drawing of him, and Dad obliged," said his daughter, Cynthia Denman of Tucker.
A few months later, in advance of a visit by Lady Bird Johnson to Atlanta to promote beautification in America, Mr. Denman did a portrait of her as well and managed to have it delivered to her on her arrival.
Speaking to a group downtown, Mrs. Johnson said she wished she could meet the artist who did the drawing.
"Dad was in the audience," Ms. Denman said, "and immediately headed to shake hands with the first lady, only to be confronted by her security detail. Dad said he got patted down by every Secret Service man in the room, but he got to meet Lady Bird and said she was very gracious and appreciative."
James Patrick Denman, 92, of Atlanta died Thursday at Hospice Atlanta of heart failure. His funeral is at 11 a.m. Saturday at the chapel of A.S. Turner & Sons funeral home, with interment to follow at Westview Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his memory to the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta, GA 30349.
Upon completing high school in Atlanta, Mr. Denman received a scholarship to go to the prestigious Art Students League school in New York City.
Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he enlisted in the Marines and went through basic training at Parris Island, S.C. Later he was assigned to take part in the invasion of Vichy-held Martinique, but the French forces there surrendered the island, eliminating the need for combat.
Since Mr. Denman had identified himself as an artist upon enlisting, he was ordered to Washington, D.C., where he spent the rest of the war as an illustrator for Leatherneck magazine.
After the war, Mr. Denman freelanced for a couple of years in New York for magazines and advertising agencies, then decided he missed Atlanta and returned here. He opened a studio downtown and did more freelancing, especially for Coca-Cola, until he joined the art department of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1960.
The CDC's art department produced illustrations and designs for publications, slide shows and films for both in-house circulation and public distribution, said a CDC colleague, Rick Bell of Atlanta
"Pat was primarily an illustrator and an exceptional one at that. He had worked with the big boys in our profession up in New York, and he showed it," he said.
Mr. Denman was a quiet, soft-spoken fellow, Mr. Bell said, but he commanded respect with his dignified, former-Marine demeanor.
Mr. Denman was generous with advice to his younger colleagues.
"I remember him telling me that artists should always work at improving their craft even when they were given assignments that weren't challenging or interesting," Mr. Bell said. "His point was that if an illustrator failed to keep striving, he wouldn't be ready when he was given a truly important task," Mr. Bell said.
Mr. Denman did an illustration years ago that Mr. Bell still recalls vividly of a football player tackling a ball carrier. "I thought Pat's execution was masterful," he said. "Viewing it, you could almost feel the impact of the tackler driving the ball carrier backward."
After retiring in 1980, Mr. Denman continued his painting, doing landscapes, seascapes and fantasy scenes with a dreamlike quality.
"From 1990 to 1995, Dad spent nearly all his time caring for our mother," said his son, Rick Denman of Kennesaw.
"After her death, Dad returned to painting using vivid colors -- reds and oranges. He had a stretch we called his Greek period where he painted scenes with a classical Greek motif," his son said.
Survivors also include three grandchildren.
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