About | ottopalmeart

About Otto Palme

Otto Palme was born on August 7, 1890 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the second of seven children, and only son, of Joseph Palme and Juliana Janak Palme. His parents were immigrants from Bohemia, his father from Rochlitz an der Iser (Rokytnice nad Jizerou) and his mother from Königsreut, District Budweis and Neuhaus (Budweis is now České Budějovice and Neuhaus is now Jindřichův Hradec, and Königsreut is Kunźak). His parents met in New Bedford where Joseph worked as a loom fixer in the mills.

Growing up in New Bedford he met Eleanora "Nora" Lamprecht Wallner, the daughter of Austrian immigrants. Nora's father ran Wallner's Bakery on Acushnet Ave. Otto and Nora were married in 1920 and moved to East Providence, RI. In 1924 they moved to 345 Pleasant Street in Rumford, RI where they raised a family and lived for the next 46 years.

World War I, US Navy and the USS Ohioan

During World War I , Otto served in the United States Navy on the ship USS Ohioan. This was a transport ship. There are letters from Otto to Nora during his time in the Navy. From Spring of 1918 through early 1919 he was stationed in Newport, RI. In February he had been sent to Bay Ridge, NY. On August 4, 1919, he was in Paris, and on the 11th in St. Nazaire, France. By September 18, 1919 he was at the US Army base in Norfolk, Virginia, and by the 25th was in Hingham, Mass., where he waited to be released.

Palme and Paulson Auto Painting

After World War I ended, Otto left the Navy and started an automobile painting business with two fellow ex-sailors. The shop was in Newport. One of the partners took all of the money and skipped town, bankrupting the business.

After recovering from this setback, Otto started another automobile and sign painting business in East Providence. Another Navy friend, Mike Paulson, worked with him there and eventually became a partner. Mike’s original name was Mike Zanovich, as he was the son of Russian immigrants. When he was being discharged from the Navy, the discharge officer told him he should change his name to something less Russian, so he changed his name to Paulson. In 1940 Otto left Palme and Paulson and worked at the Navy yard in Newport, and later worked independently as a sign painter.

Signs

Otto had great skill at sign painting. As a youngster, I would sometimes visit my grandparents and stay at their house. I was fascinated by his craft and would watch him design and paint signs in his basement. Sometimes he would take me on site to a job at the boat yard where he would paint names and license numbers on boats. Once he took me to the fire station where I watched him paint the lettering on one of the fire engines, complete with striping and gold leaf.

Art

Otto also had a great interest in the arts, and had read and studied a great deal on his own about the great masters. He also did some paintings of his own. There is an oil painting he did of an eagle with an American flag and a shield with stars and stripes that he had painted in 1918 while he was in the Navy. The canvas he used was a piece of old sail cloth. This is the earliest oil painting of his. Around 1955, Otto had a heart attack. While resting during his recovery, he produced a series of still life paintings of objects from around his house, as well as a few scenes of the gardens in his yard.

In his later years, he took up watercolor painting. When Nora became ill, they moved from the house in Rumford to stay with their daughter Winifred and her husband Joseph Nash Myers in Duxbury, Mass. This was around 1970. After Nora died in 1971, the house in Rumford was sold and Otto continued to live with Win and Joe in Duxbury. He and Joe took some watercolor courses from Marshal Joyce, an accomplished artist in the area who lived in the neighboring town of Marshfield. Otto continued to paint primarily in watercolors, and became quite accomplished himself, even winning some prizes in some local Duxbury and other South Shore art shows. He continued painting until his death in 1974.

Otto's youngest sister, Evelyn Eastwood, was an artist who attended New Bedford School of Design, studied painting at Pratt Institute and was a member of the Art Students League in New York. Her artwork and paintings can be viewed at the website https://myersjoemyers.wixsite.com/evelyneastwoodart