Part One: Gloria's Hollywood Years

Gloria Stuart is known around the world as an actress. In the 1930s, she appeared in over 42 films, including The Invisible Man, Gold Diggers of 1935, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. In 1997, at the age of 87, she landed the role of a lifetime: the 100-year-old Rose in the movie Titanic.

In southern California, Gloria is also known as a talented bonsai artist who spent half a lifetime styling and nurturing her precious trees. Her first encounter with bonsai was at a Hollywood party hosted by J.J. Cohen, then Vice-President of Paramount Pictures.

Shortly thereafter, in 1960, she began a fifty-year commitment to the art. Frank Nagata, co-founder of California Bonsai Society and Gloria's first teacher, sponsored her to become a member of CBS in the mid 1960's.

One of her shohin trees was photographed for the first Bonsai In California magazine under her married name Gloria Sheekman.

When Frank retired from teaching, Gloria studied with John Naka, another co-founder of the club. She worked on her trees and participated in exhibitions.

Gloria purchased bonsai material from nurseries, but also gathered elm seedlings below the large tree in her front yard to create two elm root-over-rock bonsai.

Gloria always loved forests, so she arranged the remaining seedlings in one group planting. Over the years, she also created forests with ginkgo and olive.

Gloria's favorite bonsai was the forest she wrote about in her autobiography I Just Kept Hoping.

While on a trip to France in 1982, Gloria and her grandson walked among the black oak trees in the royal forest surrounding the palace in Fontainebleau, near Paris, and gathered acorns.

Upon her return, Gloria planted the acorns in a bonsai pot. For the next 28 years, she enjoyed the seasonal changes in this deciduous oak forest.

Frank Goya, one of John Naka's first students, was Gloria's last teacher. They shared a love of forests and saikei. As with her other mentors, Gloria became good friends with Frank.

On the Fourth of July, 2010, Gloria celebrated her hundredth birthday with 130 friends and family at a party and retrospective hosted by James Cameron and Suzy Amis Cameron in Beverly Hills. Guests enjoyed more than two dozen of Gloria's oil paintings, several of her handmade books, and two of her bonsai including her favorite – the French oak forest.

Five weeks later, the southern California bonsai community gave Gloria another birthday celebration at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino where four of her bonsai were on display.

In August 22, 2010, Gloria attended the Nanpukai show where her beloved oak forest was on display. She visited with friends and fans for what would be her last public appearance.

Gloria always said that her love of life and never-ending curiosity kept her young.

She was in her mid-nineties when she purchased several small Shimpaku junipers to create one last forest. She watered them and fed them, but she never assembled her final creation.

For California Bonsai Society's 55th Convention, I chose to honor my dear friend by creating a forest with Gloria's little trees.

Few people live to be 100 years old; still fewer live such an extraordinary life.

On September 26th, 2010, Gloria Stuart – actress, book artist, painter, and bonsai artist – passed away.

The legacy she leaves behind is great and varied. Her talent is apparent on screen and canvas. Her wit and intellect jump off the pages of her books. Her artistry lives on in her bonsai, including three trees now part of the collection at the Huntington Gardens.