Portrait of Dr. James B. Argue
Betty Dortch Russell McMath (1920-2019)
Oil on Canvas
1988
Dr. James B. Argue served Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church as senior pastor from 1964 until 1988. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dr. Argue came to PHUMC in 1964 from Bethany Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. Dr. Argue supervised the establishment of the Television Broadcast Ministry and guided the construction of the Argue Christian Life Center. He helped establish the Good Shepherd Ecumenical Center in Little Rock. Dr. Argue made many contributions to the church and the community. After his retirement in 1988, he was the Raney Lecturer/Preacher at the church in 1990.
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.