Eleanor Frazetta

June 15 1935 - July 17 2009

Eleanor “Ellie” Doris Kelly was born in Massachusetts, June 15th 1935 and moved to New York where she later met and married Frank Frazetta on Sady Hawkin’s Day, November, 1956. They were an ideal duo, as Frank assumed the role as the creator and Ellie, as the business woman. From an early age Ellie had an understanding of business. She was the one who urged Frank to retain his paintings, rather than letting publishers keep the original artworks. That was a revolutionary practice in the paperback industry during the 1960s.  Although Ellie sold many original artworks throughout Frank’s career, she always insisted on fetching the highest prices possible. Once Frank’s career really began to flourish in the mid 60s, Ellie created and managed a successful Frazetta mail-order business. Ellie was known as a tough business woman. She full heartedly believed in her husband’s art career and did all that she could to protect his rights, his integrity and the value of his original artwork. Ellie continued to build the Frazetta brand by pursuing merchandising and later focused on opening the Frazetta Art Museum. In addition to being Frank’s business manager,  Ellie was the mother to their four children, a grandmother to eleven grandchildren and a talented model for many of Frank’s artworks over the years. Ellie was the rock that the Frazetta empire was built on.