John Ashley Bellamy, a Dallas artist and arts patron, died Tuesday, Dec. 8, at age 77. For many Dallasites, Bellamy’s death also means an end to a long-standing holiday tradition: the annual Christmas Eve party where eclectic crowds gathered each year to celebrate at Bellamy’s home, an old church known as the Moon Mansion.
The mansion served as a refuge for those seeking warmth on a night that can feel awfully cold for loners, and Bellamy was, for many, a big part of Christmas. He was a father that anyone would have dreamed for, Bellamy’s son, Gaelan Bellamy says. He provided all of the tools for what it would take to become a loving, caring, empathetic individual with integrity, and he really had all of those in spades … he did his best to pass that over to his children and all of those he would mentor. [His] reach was far and wide.”
By Gaelan Bellamy
John Ashley Bellamy, artist, beloved father, companion and brother, passed away on December 8, surrounded and held by his family, completing a life best described as fabulous.
Photo courtesy of the
Bellamy family
Born June 28, 1943 to Jane and Lloyd Bellamy, Johnny never strayed from the path less traveled.
After graduating from Jesuit High school, he went on to receive his BA in Fine Arts from Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind., notably creating a building-sized mural of the football coach out of colored balloons, and then his Masters of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, Pa.