Models and photographs Rockwell’s style was to invite men, women, and children to his studio above Main Street and pose them in costumes, arranging the scene with props. He would then take photographs, and compose his painting from these shots. He would also wander Main Street and take candid photos of passersby. “He tried to include a lot of different people from different walks of life,” recalls Br. Ken Galisa, MIC, who was born and raised in Stockbridge. “Lots of people I knew were in his paintings, including my brother, who posed as a newborn baby.” Brother Ken is the organist and cantor for the National Shrine, his music and voice known to millions from the daily livestreamed Mass. He, too, was featured in a Rockwell painting. In 1971, he was 17 and selling ads for his high school yearbook on Main Street when, unbeknownst to him, Rockwell took his picture. ‘You’re famous!’ “I was wearing a white shirt, red vest, and dark pants, and must have caught his eye,” Br. Ken recalls. “Next thing I knew, my chemistry teacher, Mrs. Day, said to me, ‘You’re famous! You’re in one of his paintings.’” Look carefully at Rockwell’s 1971 painting “The New American Lafrance Is Here (Firehouse),” and the young man hanging out the upstairs window of the house nextdoor, overly-excited by the arrival of a shiny new fire truck, is Br. Ken. “That house next door at the time was a shop with living quarters above,” he notes. “I’ve never been in there.” A print of the painting hangs in Michael’s Restaurant, across the street from the old fire house. “I always ask for the table under the picture,” he says. “It’s a happy memory.” Brother Ken’s father owned the grocery store on Main Street (today the Main Street Café), below Norman’s studio with the large picture window. “He would come down before the store opened and show my father sketches and ask his opinion,” Br. Ken recalls. “They were good friends. You would often see him riding his bicycle down Main Street.” All-American Mom Hope Ponsart Hansen, donor gifts officer for the Marians, grew up two miles from the National Shrine. Her mother, Claire Williams, now 96, posed for a series of Massachusetts Mutual Insurance ads in the 1950s. “She was always the all-American Mom,” Hope says. “Rockwell was very particular about what his models should wear. My mother was so excited when she bought a special yellow dress, and hoped he would like it. He did. And then when she saw the finished picture it was blackand-white!” Hope’s father, who served as selectman for Stockbridge for nearly 20 years, and Rockwell were good friends. He also posed for the artist several times, as did Hope’s brother and neighbors. “Every time I look at a Rockwell picture I see people I knew growing up,” she says, “and it makes me smile.” Marian connections Rockwell’s connections to the Marian Fathers abound. His studio on Main Street was rented in the 1950s from Antonio Guerrieri, who was building the Shrine chapel up on Eden Hill. “On several occasions Mr. Rockwell visited us here to see how the work was progressing,” Marian Helpers Bulletin reported. “He was a modest man, richly gifted by God, who poured out the finest aspirations of his soul into his paintings.” Ironically, Rockwell’s last painting, left unfinished on his easel, was of John Sergeant (1710-1749), the first missionary to the Native Americans, instructing Chief Konkapot in the Mission House, his home that once stood on Eden Hill. Some correspondence between Rockwell and the Marian Fathers survives in the archives of the Norman Rockwell Museum. On February 10, 1959, Fr. Martin Rzeszutek, MIC (d. 2019), who had private drawing lessons from Rockwell, complimented him on a recent television appearance. “I’m sure that all the residents of Stockbridge would agree — we are proud to have you as our ‘neighbor,’” he wrote. “It is my fervent prayer that God grant you many more years of life The Marians visit Norman Rockwell’s studio in Nov. 1959, as featured in Marian Helpers Bulletin. Marian Helper • Summer 2025 • Marian.org 27 Continued on page 28
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