Nancy Coonsman Hahn was an American sculptor who won the commission for the Missouri War Memorial in Cheppy, France.
Early life
Nancy Coonsman was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 28, 1887, the daughter of Robert A. Coonsman and Henrietta "Nettie" Hynson. After passing through the public schools her mother influenced her to develop the talent which she early displayed, and which she herself possessed in a marked degree when young, but had never had the opportunity of developing. Rodney Coonsman, her brother, was interested in the financial sheet of a local newspaper, and his wife was an artist of considerable reputation. She graduated from the Central High School in 1906. Coonsman took a four-year course in the St. Louis School of Fine Arts of University of Missouri–St. Louis and then studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Charles Grafly. In 1911 she was an honor student working with George Julian Zolnay. This privilege was only accorded those who showed unusual talent. Coonsman studied in New York City under Abastenia St. Leger Eberle.
Career
Nancy Coonsman exhibited in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, New York Academy of Design and Western Artists' Exhibition. For her lighter work, fountains, both for interior decorations and the garden, had always held her attention. Coonsman placed a fountain in the Mullanphy Floral Shop, a center fountain with graceful cherubs, and made another of quite pretentious design for Randolph Laughlin's new home, "Lachlin," in St. Louis County. A little St. Louis girl posed for this. There were two figures, and hers was kneeling down on flat stones catching the water in a lily leaf, which she held in her hand, as it trickled through the rock. Another ambition was to do large agricultural figures in a big conventional way, but in St. Louis the need or call for such work did not come up often. Coonsman also worked as a teacher, as assistant in the Art School, private classes, and regularly at Bishop Robertson Hall. She did a portrait of Ruth Felker. It was dignified and true to life. Another sketch of Eloise Wells was a charming piece of workmanship, as well as of Elsie Blackman and Georgia Cady. Coonsman was selected over a number of competitors to execute sculpture for a fountain for the Kincaid Memorial to be located in the sunken garden behind the PublicSchool Library. Margaret Kincaid of Louisiana, Missouri, had donated funds for a drinking fountain, specifying that the competition had to be open only to women. Coonsman also designed the two concrete benches nearby which are supported by elves. In 1922, Nancy Coonsman won a $25,000 competition to design the war memorial, called Victory, erected in Cheppy-Varennes-en-Argonne, France, to honor the Missouri soldiers from the 35th Infantry Division killed during World War I. In 1926 she designed The Doughboy, dedicated in 1928, to honor World War I soldiers and placed in Overton Park in Memphis, Tennessee. Later in life she became a teacher and worked on small figures and busts.
Personal life
Nancy Coonsman married Emanual Hahn in 1918 and they had one son, Charless Hahn, a stamp dealer and collector who wrote a column on philately for the Chicago Sun Times. Hahn was the founder, and consequently first president, of the Burlington Liars' Club. While living in Burlington, Nancy Coonsman sculpted the brass plaque erected by the Burlington Historical Society on Highway 11, west of White River bridge, to commemorate the site of the Voree Mormon settlement. She died in Winnetka, Illinois, on January 27, 1976.
