Biography

Fred W. Thrasher was born in Clinton County, Kentucky in 1938, and lived in Albany, Ky. until he married. Then he moved to Indiana in 1960. After seven years of employment there, he moved back to his home town and went into business for himself. Fred and his wife Betty have five sons (Danny, Freddie, Ronnie, Jeff, and Dennis) and one daughter (Margaret). Betty had been a great inspiration to him as an artist and the encouragement and support from his family contributed much to his success. Fred has sketched since early school days, and started painting with oils in 1968. Having no formal training, he completed a correspondence course from Washington School of Art, he had worked with several well known artists, and studied many books and articles on art. Nature scenes and historical landmarks are what Fred loved to paint the most. After a short illness, Kentucky artist Fred Thrasher passed at the age of 83 from a long, hard-fought battle with end-stage COPD, complicated by a recent fight with COVID-19, surrounded by loved ones. The legendary local artist from Clinton County, whose works depicted the America of yesterday seen through the eyes of today, was a fixture of the art community for decades, with his final work coming in 2014.