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historical notes
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James G. Butler was a lawyer who won the first jury verdict in a civil thalidomide case and whose role in founding a local chapter of the NAACP caused controversy in Compton.
After earning his bachelor’s degree from St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, N.J., Butler enlisted as a flier in the Marine Corps in 1943, piloting fighter planes in the Pacific theater. When he came down with malaria during World War II, he was treated by Eugenia Louise Jefferson, a nurse and master sergeant in the Marines who became his first wife. They married in 1945, and he earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1947.
Butler was the main investor in his wife’s innovative galleries, which helped legitimize conceptual art in the 1960s. The Eugenia Butler Gallery, open from 1968 to 1971, was applauded by a Times art writer as “adventuresome.” Butler also collected the work of several important artists such as James Lee Byars. Eight Andy Warhol lithographs of Marilyn Monroe, in addition to other well-known artists’ works, lined the walls of Butler’s Wilshire Boulevard offices.
Butler’s first marriage ended in 1970. His second marriage, to the artist Morgan Thomas, lasted from the late 1970s to 1989. He also collected dictionaries. |
