Portrait of Rev. Victor H. Nixon
Betty Dortch Russell McMath (1920-2019)
Oil on Canvas
2010
Rev. Victor H. Nixon served Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church as senior pastor from 1992 until 2010. A native of Lavaca, Arkansas, Rev. Vic Nixon served many United Methodist Churches in Arkansas and held conference positions before coming to PHUMC as Senior Pastor in 1992. Rev. Nixon worked hard at creating a spiritual atmosphere at PHUMC where everyone felt included with no barriers present to participation in its ministries and services. He was equally effective in creating new programming for children’s and young people’s ministries as well those for older adults. Possibly the most visible evidence of his pastorate at PHUMC was the expansion of the physical facilities on the campus that almost doubled Sunday school and office space, increased parking availability, and offered new worship opportunities. A year after Rev. Nixon’s retirement in 2010, he returned to the church in the position of Pastor Emeritus.
Betty Dortch Russell McMath became Arkansas’ most prominent portrait artist during the second half of the twentieth century. She produced portraits of five Arkansas governors. Betty Ruth Dortch was born in Little Rock and the family lived on 1,200 acres near Scott, Arkansas. She graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1938 and attended Hendrix College in Conway and studied art with Louis and Elsie Freund (whose works are also in the PHUMC collection).
Throughout a seven-decade career, Betty Russell McMath painted dozens of portraits for prominent Arkansas citizens. Among those were Pulitzer Prize recipient John Gould Fletcher, Little Rock political and social activist, Adolphine Fletcher Terry and U.S. district Judge Henry Woods. Her official portraits of Arkansas governors include: Orval Faubus, Winthrop Rockefeller, Daniel Webster Jones (recreated from a 1900’s black-and-white photograph since his original portrait was damaged), Sid McMath, and Bob Cowley Riley. In 1962 Betty and a friend, Marge Holman won a competition to decorate the flood wall between the Arkansas River and downtown North Little Rock.
It is 400 feet long and 12 feet high. Their wining idea depicted 12 panels based on the history of Arkansas from the earliest Native American settlements to modern times. The mural underwent restoration in 2001.
For thirty years, Betty Russell McMath taught painting, figure drawing, and art appreciation at the Arkansas Arts Center (now the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts). She retired as an active artist in 2014.