The lucky purchase by a young couple in Austin, Texas—of a lost portrait of John Steinbeck painted by an admirer 50 years ago—presents intriguing questions about the California author’s connection to Texas, the state he celebrated in Travels with Charley because, he said, his wife Elaine grew up there. Anthony Verdecanna, a specialist in mid-20th century furniture, and his wife Whitney, a musician, came across the elegantly framed find recently at an estate sale near Austin. The inscriptions on the back—“To Elaine Steinbeck” and “Virginia Boyd in Thailand 1969”—piqued their curiosity about its provenance. Following the trail of “Jenny Boyd,” the person who signed the work, they learned that the Virginia in the inscription was most likely the artist’s mother, Virginia Hawkins Boyd Connally, a pioneering physician in Abilene and the widow of Ed Connally, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party during the heyday of Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. An eye-ear-nose-and-throat specialist whose first husband 
was named Fred Boyd, Dr. Connally was born in 1912 and died on March 31, 2019, leaving her daughter Genna Boyd Davis, an art education major in the 1960s, as her sole immediate survivor. Like a story by Steinbeck, the heroic narrative of Virginia Connally’s life presents multiple possibilities. Did she and Ed meet John and Elaine in Texas through the Johnsons, with whom the Steinbecks were friendly? Or was the writer’s generous portrait of Texas in the pages of Travels with Charley enough to win her affection—and the tribute of a devoted daughter’s painting, lost for 50 years until its discovery by yet another power couple from Elaine Steinbeck’s home state?
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Yard sales and flea markets and thrift stores are an infinite source of interesting items and rich encounters. Anthony and Whitney did a service by finding this portrait. There is no guarantee it would have survived long otherwise. I recall the story of a man years ago rescuing an important historical document that was about to be tossed into a fire at the end of a garage sale because it hadn’t sold – how many people must have passed on it for ten bucks or so. Four of five of my stories came from people encountered in junk shops or flea markets. Junk shop owners have an interesting slant on the world. And of course the valuable art out there for next to nothing is endless. There is, by the way, a portrait of John Steinbeck executed in the 1930s by Ellwood Graham in Monterey, that has been missing for decades. It’s an amazing painting, so good John reportedly didn’t like it. If you see it at a yard sale or flea mart, don’t pass on it!
To: Steve Hauk
Thank you so much for your time, expertise and help regarding this painting. Also, for referring me to steinbecknow.com and another preeminent Steinbeck scholar William Ray. A little quick background. I get the painting home, and through a few Google searches com across the name Steve Hauk and Hauk Fine Arts. I read his bio and very quickly decided this was the person I needed to contact for help. I call the listed number for Hauk Fine Arts and nervously bumble through explaining our discovery to whomever I am speaking with. Come to find out a few minutes into the conversation, I am speaking with Steve Hauk. I certainly appreciated your patience! Haha. My wife and I have certainly learned a lot in the process and continue to educate ourselves further each day throughout this discovery.
Again thanks to William Ray for writing and posting this article.
For the public: any further information regarding this painting can be had by contacting me at anthonyverdecanna@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Anthony Verdecanna
Anthony, Whitney,
my pleasure to help – anytime we can save something for posterity that says good things about us, which you have done, is great, and Steinbeck remains a powerful and positive force.The painting should hang publicly somewhere someday because it has a story to tell. Will is correct, there is great irony in imagining its history, and would probably make a heck of a short story. Maybe, reflecting Steinbeck, “The Wayward Portrait”?
The picture and comments are great. It’s a very well done picture although it does not have the softness of the John I knew in family settings. But it certainly expresses the determination that all of his work portrays as he pushes us to examine the human struggle.
Joan Covici, Dallas.
P.S. Elaine was raised in Ft. Worth, TX. I think she was born there.
Joan Covici is a Texas civil rights activist and the widow of Pascal Covici Jr., the literary scholar and longtime Southern Methodist University English professor whose father was John Steinbeck’s loyal editor and friend, Pat Covici. The error she points out about the identity of Elaine Steinbeck’s home town has been gratefully corrected. Anyone else with information to amend the record or fill in the blanks in the story is asked to leave a comment in this space or email Anthony Verdecanna at the address he provided.
Joan Covici, could you please reach out to me? I work with the University of Missouri Press. Thank you!
Great story. And Steve is absolutely correct. Estate and yard sales yield amazing stuff, some of which get turned into great books like “Steinbeck, the Untold Stories,” and some of which end up in museums. Anybody who finds something intriguing should spirit it home and get on the internet. Thanks to Anthony and Elaine for having the good eye and the good sense to do both.
Can I contact Anthony about a painting i found
Hi, John
You can contact me at anthonyverdecanna@yahoo.com
Thanks
Though I am not sure if the Virginia Boyd mentioned on the back is Dr. Virginia Boyd Connally, who married my grandfather, Ed Connally, I am certain that the artist, Jenny Boyd, was NOT Virginia’s daughter, Genna (personal communication with Genna). Fascinating story and mystery! Let me say, as much as Virginia and Ed traveled the world and met famous people, it would not surprise me in the least if there was a connection, but it isn’t a mother-daughter one.