Anna Bernadette Gaver, a former display artist who painted the face of Babe Ruth for an Orioles parade, died of cancer complications Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Northeast Baltimore resident was 84.
Born Anna Meli in Baltimore and raised on South Paca Street, she was one of nine children born to Sicilian immigrant parents. She attended St. Jerome's Parochial School and was a 1936 graduate of Southern High School.
While working as a seamstress at the old Adalman Coat Co., she attended the Maryland Institute College of Art's night school -- often walking to her classes from her home in South Baltimore.
In 1944, she earned her degree in costume design and illustration and was the recipient of the Peabody Institute's "Peabody Award for Art of Design." She continued her studies at the Maryland Institute and earned a postgraduate degree in 1945. She also studied portrait painting through 1950.
From 1947 to 1955, she worked for Dorothy Lynch Studio, a downtown mannequin manufacturing and repair company. She specialized in painting faces on mannequins.
Her work was included in the elaborate Howard Street department store Christmas window displays, including painting the face on the animated Santa Claus figure for the old Hochschild, Kohn & Co. store.
In 1954, with the move of the St. Louis Browns to Baltimore to become the Orioles, she painted the face of Babe Ruth on a figure displayed on an opening day float that was featured in a parade led by then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon.
In 1954, she married Robert W. Gaver Sr., a sales executive in the plastic pipe industry. After his death in 1975, she managed the fabrics department of the Frankford Plaza McCrory variety store. She retired in 1984.
An avid duckpin bowler, she belonged to leagues at the Parkville and Seidel lanes.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Thursday at Most Precious Blood, 5010 Bowleys Lane, where she was a parish member.
She is survived by a son, Robert W. Gaver Jr. of Baltimore, and three grandchildren.