Who is JT Wells?
Journalist, retired
Education - Austin Jr. College, Marquette University
Married to artist Marilee Wells
Current occupation - computer guru
John T. Wells is a journalist, who retired in 1995 from The Milwaukee Journal.
He also has worked for the Appleton Post-Crescent; the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern; and the Brown County Chronicle, (all in Wisconsin) a paper which he and a partner, Frank Wood, began.
His first newspaper job, at age 19, was editor of the Denmark Press, a small weekly near Green Bay, Wis.
In his work for the Appleton Post-Crescent, he was a reporter in a one-person office in Waupaca, WI from 1957 to 1960. He covered the campaign journeys of President John F. Kennedy in central Wisconsin, and also covered visits and speeches by Robert Kennedy.
In 1960 while working in Green Bay, Wells developed tuberculosis and was hospitalized about 2 1/2 years in Hickory Grove Sanitorium near DePere, WI, and at Muirdale Sanitorium in Milwaukee County.
At Oshkosh, Wells was sports editor. He was there from about 1961 to 1966. He knew almost nothing about sports, but had the chance to cover some aspects of the Green Bay Packers during the Vince Lombardi years at Green Bay. In 1966, Wells took a year off to write and learn the basics of photography.
In 1967, he joined The Milwaukee Journal's local copy desk. In about 1970, he was assigned to the State News Desk as a reporter and rewrite person. He worked on that assignment until 1984, when he rejoined the Local Copy Desk.
Who is Marilee A. Wells?
Wisconsin Artist
Education - UW-Oshkosh, UW-Milwaukee
Married to journalist JT Wells
Marilee A. Wells is an artist whose specialty is urban landscapes.
She is dedicated to presenting not only pieces of the
historic past of Wisconsin, but also a feel for the character
of the people and places that make up our urban environment.
Her work is as varied as the community itself, and may be as broad as a sweeping scene of old buildings serving Milwaukee's Lake Michigan port, or as minute as the ornate doors of magnificent buildings from a century ago.
In giving a painting life, she looks for the contrasts of light and dark, sunlight and shadows. Her eye and brush pause and explore the facets of buildings and scenes we pass every day and may never see -- a simple elegant arched entryway, a flowerpot in an apartment window above a downtown East Side street.
Many of her paintings are of scenes from Milwaukee's Lower East side, the Old Third Ward and Bay View, all areas rich in architecture that is in danger of disappearing. Most of her work is done in acrylic.
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