Clementine S. Elia, owner and manager of KC Arts, 252 Court Street, died June 4, 2008.
While a mother of three young children, she not only pursued studies for a degree in art at Brooklyn College, she also opened her first art supply store, still a student, prior to graduating in June 1980.
She established her first KC Arts store outside the entrance to Kingsboro Community College, followed shortly by another outside the Hillel Place entrance to Brooklyn College.
Departing from those two locations, she started a sequence of stores, moving from one location to another, all on Court Street – first at the corner of Carroll Street, then to a location between President and Union Streets, next toward the corner of Warren Street, and finally to the present location at the corner of Kane Street where KC Art Supplies has been for the past fifteen years, and continues now under the management of her son, Ralph Elia.
Throughout those years, she was active in the development of the Carroll Gardens Community, such as regularly donating KC Arts gift certificates to charity auctions at local schools, among other things.
Born May 19, l937. She is survived by two daughters, Maria Elia, Brooklyn, NY, Donna Sullivan, Middletown, NJ, Ralph Elia, Belmar, NJ, four grandchildren, and her partner, Genevieve Leahy, Amityville, NY.
