Our ancestor Elaine Burmeister was not only a homemaker who loved to travel, she was also an accomplished oil painter. But her creativity drove her to explore other media as well – she also enjoyed interior design and spent many years decorating the homes she lived in throughout her life.
Elaine was born in the city of St. Louis in 1943. On her second birthday, the world celebrated VE Day. But she was busy growing up with her two sisters in a small house next door to the family filling station that her father ran. She would walk to school, or to church, which was only a couple of blocks down the street. And sometimes, on the weekends, she and her sister would go to The Fabulous Fox, which at the time just showed movies. An afternoon matinee was twenty-five cents.
She came of age in north St. Louis, hanging out with her friends at the “Circle Steak ‘n Shake” located on the legendary roundabout at the intersection of Lewis and Clark and Riverview. It was here that she met her future husband, Larry Pipes. They were married in 1966 and bought their first home in north St. Louis County just two miles from the family homesteads on Bellefontaine Road. During the many years they lived there, Elaine spent a lot of time remodeling the house to suit herself. A 1971 trip to Hawaii, sparked a lifelong interest in Polynesian culture and inspired many of her future projects, including a mural she painted on the wall of their bedroom.
A collection of Elaine’s artwork is provided in our archive under a Creative Commons license.
