Lois Watson Wing Burrell
1887-1973
She was born 24 Aug. 1887 on her grandfather’s farm near Clyde, NY. Her parents were Henry Hiram Wing and Lillian Watson. She grew up in Ithaca, NY where her father was professor of animal husbandry at Cornell University. She spent summers at her grandfather’s farm. Childhood friends were Catherine Schurman, the daughter of Cornell’s president and Sarah Bailey, the daughter of a professor of botany.
She graduated from Cornell in 1909 and in the summer of 1911 Loomis Burrell wrote Cornell asking for someone to help develop a method for sterilizing dairy and milking equipment. The people at Cornell recommended and sent Lois. She helped and developed a chlorine-based product that is basically the Clorox we know today.
In 1912 she graduated from Cornell with a masters in bacteriology. On 20 June 1912 she and Loomis were married. Their children were Lilian, Elizabeth and Jean.
Lois took several courses in drawing while at Cornell and enjoyed it. During the 1920s, the family vacationed on Nantucket Island and she began studying with Frank Swift Chase.
Most of her paintings were done while on Nantucket and most in the 1920s and 1930s. Little Falls and Florida were also locales for her painting.
She died on 30 Aug. 1973.