Dorothy Marie Brady

Dot trained at Chouinard Art Institute and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. At age 20, she began her career as a Bugs Bunny animator at Warner Brothers Studios.

When she tired of the assembly line of animation art, Dot decided to set her art and her spirit free, so she joined the circus as a member of the “ballet broads,” a horse and elephant riding team with the Russell Brothers Circus. Her circus stint was short, but the summer of fast horses and three-ring adventures began a remarkable artistic career lived without apology.

In 1948, Dot met and married Bob Brady, her biggest fan. They had three daughters, Virginia, Linda, and Jeanne.

Dot's favorite medium was watercolor, and she made it her life's work. The family moved to Stuttgart, Germany, in 1965, and she “painted her way across Europe.”

On their return to the United States in 1972, she and Bob moved to Miami, Florida, and there Dot became a member of the faculty at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, owned and managed an art gallery in Homestead, designed and built her own studio next to her home there, and branched out into large acrylic painting and metal sculpture. She never stopped growing and creating. She spent the last 13 years of her life in Birmingham, Alabama near her eldest daughter, Ginny.

Dot was preceded in death by her husband, Bob, and her parents, Gilbert and Irma Budwig. Survivors include her daughters and sons-in-law, eight grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.

The private service to celebrate Dot Brady's life will be at Alabama National Cemetery, Montevallo.

Memorial gifts may be made to Tennessee Craft, 1315 Adams Street Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37208 or www.tennesseecraft.org.