S-R STAFF ARTIST ANNE HEITNER WASHINGTON DIES OF CANCER

A. Heitner's Elvis could throw a hip off a page. Her Omar Sharif smoldered. Her mothers held babies with tender mercy.

Her caricatures, illustrations and portraits, appearing almost daily in The Spokesman-Review, could in a brush stroke, move readers from grief to a smile.

Thursday, staff artist Anne Heitner Washington died of cancer. She was 46.

Her award-winning work confounded judges in newspaper contests looking for an identifiable style.

"She had every conceivable style," said fellow artist Charles Waltmire. "And she had command of all of them."

From acrylics to pastels to watercolors, Heitner could turn abstract ideas into concrete images - usually within the hour. One colleague compared her speed and style to a jazz musician constantly improvising - a muse in motion. She'd have gently laughed at the idea.

A single mother of twin boys and a daughter, Heitner loved her job as much for its ability to provide for her family as for its career zip. "Her family was always number one," said Design Editor John Nelson.

Raised in Cleveland, Minn., she came west at 17 and attended local colleges. After marrying and having children, she worked as a freelance artist, volunteering at the South Spokane Parent Co-Op and Grant Elementary.

She had no newspaper experience and no art degree when Nelson assigned her the first illustration.

"She did it just right, perfectly right, the first time," he said. "A lot of it was just raw talent. She could look at something and do it, she could look at a book and do it. It was incredible."

Heitner became a staff artist in 1992 and a staff favorite the day after. Amid the chaos of deadlines and competing egos, she was a mom in cotton jeans and comfortable shoes, chatting amiably as she worked on a piece. "She made people feel safe," a colleague said.

Heitner designed T-shirts for the sport's department's annual Wet Dog Fur Open golf tournament and for friends' family reunions - always balking at payment or praise.

Asked to illustrate complex topics such as violence or Spokane's vision for the future, Heitner created sharp stylized images of menace or hope. But she lived for the bright spot: Julia Childs dishing with a reporter, Santa wearing peace signs on his suspenders.

"She had a great sense of humor and you could just see it in her art," Nelson said.

As cancer spread from her kidney to her spine and lungs, Heitner remained positive, encircled by extended family and close friends. The night before she died, her mother lay awake wondering: "How can I be more like Anne?"

Heitner is survived by her children Doug, Eddie and Lilly, of Spokane; mother, Mary Ann Heitner of Cleveland, Minn.; sisters Jackie May and Kris Campbell, of Mankato, Minn.; Leah Heitner, Cleveland; Katie Haggbloom, St. Peter, Minn.; brothers Dick Heitner, LeCenter, Minn.; Steve Heitner and Bill Heitner, both of Spokane, and Mark Heitner, Waseca, Minn.; and the children's father, Rich Washington. She was preceded in death by her father, Paul Heitner. Memorial services are pending.

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.