Rebecca H. Whiting of Truro died peacefully at Cape Cod Hospital on March 6, 2024 with loved ones by her side. She was 86.
The daughter of Robert and Viola Morris, Rebecca was born on Sept. 3, 1937 in Truro, where she grew up. As a young girl she was interested in art, took painting classes at Castle Hill, and modeled for Jerry Farnsworth’s art students and at Cleve Woodward’s studio.
She attended Provincetown High School, graduating in 1955. The Long Pointer that year declared, “This yellow-haired young Truro lass is the beauty of our class.”
While still in high school, she met George R. Whiting on the beach. According to her family, George had a station wagon kitted out with airplane tires so he could drive over the sand. They married soon after high school and settled on School House Road in Eastham. George ran a landscaping business, while Rebecca looked after their four children at home, putting aside her painting when the children were small.
After 10 years in Eastham, the family moved to South Orleans and then to Guilford, N.H., where they renovated a small house on a pond, naming it “Strawberry Hill.”
“Rebecca had a love for strawberries,” her daughter-in-law Kim said. “She was a beautiful gardener, and she loved painting flowers.”
When Rebecca picked up her paintbrushes again, she recorded her progress in a series of notes to her family. In one she wrote, “Painting classes coming along but so much to learn. I thought it would be simple. HA — I was simple thinking that.” She later wrote: “Painting up a storm. Still no great masterpieces but steady improvement.”
After George retired in the late 1980s, they spent winters in Stuart, Fla., “big into boating,” Kim said, and they returned to Truro for the summers. By 1996, Rebecca was showing her paintings in galleries in Florida and Truro. In the summer of 1996, she had a solo show at the Truro COA Gallery titled “R.H. Whiting’s Seascapes and Landscapes in Oil.”
Another COA reception notice said that Rebecca “was juried into the Cape Cod Women’s Organization’s Women Creating 2000 with a painting called ‘Pond Village.’ ” After that success, Rebecca relocated her studio “back to the Morris homestead where she grew up,” as recorded in a Provincetown Banner notice. She also set up a studio in Stuart.
In addition to galleries in Truro and Provincetown, Rebecca sold her work in Chatham and exhibited in Florida, where she took classes with Kassie Taylor in Fort Pierce. She was a member of the Provincetown Art Association and the Vero Beach Art Club.
Rebecca leaves a legacy of paintings gracing the walls of the homes of her extended family.
She is survived by her son, J. Robert Whiting, and wife Kim of Eastham; her daughter, Heidi Root, of Brewster; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She was predeceased by her husband, George R. Whiting, and daughters Victoria and Holly Whiting, all of Eastham.
A private memorial is being planned by the family.
