Belle Kinney Scholz
Belle Marshall Kinney Scholz (1890–1959) was an American sculptor, born in Tennessee who worked and died in New York state. Early life. Belle Kinney was one of four children born to Captain D.C. Kenny and Elizabeth Morrison Kenny. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Belle Kinney won first prize at the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition for a bust of her father. Sculpting career. At age 15, Belle Kinney was awarded a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied with Lorado Taft. In 1907, at age 17, she received her first commission, to sculpt the  statue of Jere Baxter, organizer of the Tennessee Central Railway. Following her work at the Art Institute, Kinney maintained a studio in Greenwich Village, during which time she met Austrian-born sculptor Leopold F. Scholz (1877–1946). They married in 1921, and completed several other works together, including the Victory statue in the War Memorial Building court at Legislative Plaza, Nashville (1929) and the bronze figure of Victory for the World War I Memorial in Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, New York City (1933). They also created both works representing Tennessee in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the US Capitol in  Washington D.C. By 1948, Kinney was maintaining a studio in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kinney died on August 27 or 28, 1959 at age 69 in Boiceville, Ulster County, New York.