Pearl James loved animals and put them on almost every piece of pottery she made in her east Denver home.
James, who died Sept. 21 at 97, was a potter for more than four decades.
The casseroles, bowls, boxes, vases and teapots were adorned with some kind of critter – a frog on a round box, another on a teapot handle, fish on bowls, an iguana as the handle for a casserole.
Every piece was in earth tones because “she didn’t like things that were bright and gaudy,” said her son, Ty Hollingsworth of Bluffton, S.C.
“There’s always some delight in Pearl’s work,” friend Trudy Fow ler said in a Denver Post story about James in 1999.
James was 90 that year, and she continued potting when she turned 91. But at some point that year, she told her daughter-in-law, Rachel Hollings worth, that her work was no longer up to standard and she was quitting, said her son.
James, shy and introverted, preferred making pottery to any other activity.
She was usually at home, shopping from catalogs, and was “fastidious” about her hairdos and dress. She wore navy blue suits and a colored blouse, always with a pearl necklace and pearl earrings, her son said.
Her pottery hours were strict – from after breakfast until 4 p.m., when she broke for a cocktail. For years, that was Scotch and soda, but her second husband, Frank James, didn’t think Scotch “was for ladies” so he always poured her a Tom Collins.
After his death in 1986, she returned to Scotch, relieved she could drink what she wanted, said her son.
James was active in the Colorado Potters’ Guild and showed and sold her work there. She also sold work at Evergreen stores.
She told a Denver Post reporter in 1999 that her longevity was because “I’m delighted with things. I always find things that please me.”
Pearl Danekas was born Jan. 14, 1909, in Milford, Neb., and finished high school there.
She attended the University of Nebraska for two years and, while there, met John E. Hollingsworth. The couple married in 1927. They moved to Denver, where he worked for City Elite Laundry. He died in 1956, and Pearl Hollingsworth enrolled at the University of Denver, majoring in interior design.
She took a pottery class “and fell in love with it,” said her son. She earned a master’s degree in ceramics and then taught it at DU.
She married James in 1966, and he didn’t want her to work. So she went into full-time pottery work, setting up shop in her basement and putting wood over the pool table so she would have a place to dry the pots.
In addition to her son, she is survived by six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-954-1223.
