How Did Georgia O'Keeffe Die?
Georgia O'Keeffe died on 6 March 1986 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, of natural causes. She was 98 years old.
The mother of American modernism lived nearly a century, painting almost to the end even as her eyesight failed.
A long life in the desert
O'Keeffe spent her later decades in the New Mexico desert she loved, at Ghost Ranch and in the village of Abiquiu, surrounded by the bones, hills and skies she painted.
She died in Santa Fe at 98, one of the longest and most productive lives of any major American artist.
Failing sight and a late companion
In her final years O'Keeffe lost much of her central vision to an eye condition, which made painting increasingly hard.
A young potter named Juan Hamilton became her close companion and assistant, helping her keep working in clay and oversee her affairs in the last chapter of her life.
The places she left behind
Her adobe home and studio in Abiquiu, where she lived and worked for decades, are now preserved and open to visitors as a record of how she lived close to the land.
A museum devoted entirely to her work opened in Santa Fe in 1997, eleven years after her death, cementing her place at the center of American art.
Questions about O'Keeffe's death
When did she die?
6 March 1986.
How old was she?
Ninety eight.
Where?
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
What happened to her ashes?
They were scattered on the land she loved, at the top of the Pedernal mesa.
Returned to the land she painted
O'Keeffe asked for her ashes to be scattered on the Pedernal, the flat topped mountain she painted so often she once joked God told her it would be hers if she painted it enough. Her whole story is in the Georgia O'Keeffe guide.