So sad to hear this. I was fortunate enough to meet Pete and Orah Mae at the Indy US Nats swap meet in the late 1990's and struck up a friendship. Pete was trying to re-assemble all of his life's work for CD compilation and I had several issues for sale of his cartoon mags that he had not acquired yet. When he asked how much, I recognized him immediately and put all the mags in a bag and handed it to him thanking him for all of my mis-spent youth hours reading his stuff. He was blown away that I would just hand these mags over asking nothing in return. He went back to his table and returned with a Tshirt and his business card (which I still have) and said he could not thank me enough for my generosity.
Later I went over to his table where he had this original painting on display that he tried to sell to Mad Magazine which he had an entire story already written for and they rejected it....
I was completely stoked to see one of his originals in real life and went back to my tables where I started telling my (then) girlfriend (now wife) about this Pete Millar original painting. Unbeknownst to me she went over and struck up a conversation with Orah Mae and secretly bought the painting as a Christmas present for me. I gathered up the cash to go back and buy it and Orah Mae told me I was too late, and someone else had already bought it. What I didn't know was that she had Pete and Orah Mae take it back home with them and then turn around and ship it to her house so I wouldn't suspect anything. That year she had it framed sprung it on me which is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.
As years went by we kept in touch with emails and cards and occasionally seeing each other at various events.
I later bought this second original from Pete sight unseen when I emailed him one day to see if he had any other paintings he wanted to sell. He described it and I sent him the money knowing his attention to detail and he shipped it to me. I was just as thrilled with this one as the first....
A few more years went by and we told Pete and Orah Mae we were coming out to the Winternats and would like to have dinner with them. We met up at their house, went to dinner, and afterwords went back to their house to visit. While there, Pete showed me his prized Mustang he was re-doing and then showed me his office. While showing me different things he pulled this last painting out and said he had gotten into Giclee printing and had lost interest in finishing this. I ask him what he was going to do with it, he grabbed out of my hands, signed it, and said "give it to you".
Needless to say this is my favorite of all 3....
I love how you can see his pencil drawings to get started and then the finished painted areas after....
Didn't mean to highjack this with all of the "Pete story", but Orah Mae was so important and integral to Pete's life.
Rest In Peace Orah Mae, you will be missed.
Steve Hammann
