Helen Zona, prolific artist, role model, 79

Helen C. "Hedda" (Driscoll) Zona of Rockland sold her first piece of art when she was a child. She reworked the illustrations in her textbooks and sold them to her parents. It was the beginning of a lifetime of work in the arts.

"The interest [in the arts] was just there, and it displayed itself at a very early age," said her son, Frank of Hanover. "It was in her spirit."

This passion never ceased. "Still painting at 80 years of age . . . with no intention of stopping," she wrote on her website, artbyhedda.com.

In her final 13 years, she created more than 200 paintings, her son said.

Hedda Zona died at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Wednesday of complications from cancer. She was 79.

Mrs. Zona was born in Jamaica Plain in 1927. Her childhood home was located across from the entrance to the Arnold Arboretum, which, according to her family, contributed to her love of landscape and inspired her art throughout her life.

"That location was very important," said her son. "Because of her closeness with that place, when she taught us to draw, we started with trees."

As a teenager, Mrs. Zona won an award from the Animal Rescue League for her painting of a dog bringing a child out of water.

She attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston, graduating in 1947. She then began working in advertising as a freelancer, creating drawings for Boston department stores.

In her 20s, Mrs. Zona bought a building on Newbury Street to use as an art studio.

In 1950, she met Samuel J. "Frank" Zona. "He had a big [hair] salon, was looking for advertising help, and she found him. He hired her as a staff artist," said her son. Ten years later, in 1960, they married.

In 1961, they moved to Hanover, and Mrs. Zona took a break from art to raise her children. "The one thing that was more important than her art -- her children and her family," said her son. "She didn't stop [making art] entirely. Our house in Hanover was a kind of masterpiece in landscaping."

Her husband died in 1985; she resumed painting eight years later. "It was remarkable. She seemed to get younger each year," said her son.

"Her work was very well respected by people in the industry," said Donna Rossetti-Bailey, an artist from Marshfield. "We always spoke of Hedda and what a wonderful role model she was for all of us. A women in her late 70s doing such great work."

One of her greatest accomplishments, said Rossetti-Bailey, was being accepted as a signature member of the Pastel Society of America. "That's something that all pastel artists aspire to -- it's one of the greatest compliments you can receive," Rossetti-Bailey said.

"I am so thankful for what talent I've been endowed with . . . and for the opportunity to express what I see in the awesome beauty of this world," Mrs. Zona wrote on her website. "I'm thankful that I'm still able to enjoy painting almost every day, and especially thankful for the wonderful people I've met along the way."

In addition to her son, she leaves another son, Andrew of Hingham; a daughter, Maria of Plymouth; a brother, John T. Driscoll of Milton; and two grandchildren.

A funeral will be held on Tuesday at 9 a.m. in St. Mary of the Sacred Heart Church in Hanover. Interment will follow in Hanover Center Cemetery .