Eleanor McGowan Byrne, widow of Horace F. Byrne, died Monday, February 6, 2006, at Palmetto Health Richland. She was born in Steubenville, Ohio, January 16, 1921, to the late Charles Batchelor McGowan, a banker, and Bertha Droege McGowan, a Columbia native.

Eleanor spent her childhood in Ohio, Long Island, New York, and Rhode Island. She spent three formative years in France, 1931–1934, where she became a native French speaker and developed a life–long love for the country and its culture.

Eleanor attended high school at the Mary C. Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island, then Mt. Holyoke College. In 1941, she left college to work for the Free French Delegation in Washington. She spent two years in that post for which the French government awarded her the title Chevalier de l’Ordre de l’Etoile Danjouan.

Eleanor then served as a translator at the United Nations in Lake Success, New York. While there, she met Horace Byrne, whom she married November 4, 1948.

After her husband joined the US Department of State in the early 1950s, they spent the next 16 years in postings in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and South Africa. After living for a period in Washington and Boston, in 1976 the couple moved to Columbia.

Eleanor earned a Master of Fine Arts from USC in 1982. She taught drawing and art appreciation at the university from 1977 to 1982. She was an instructor at the Columbia Museum of Art for five years. For the next 25 years, she devoted herself to painting and teaching. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in seven states, and is represented in several corporate and numerous private collections including Winning Images, Columbus, Ohio; Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC; SECCA, Winston–Salem, NC; Portfolio Gallery, Columbia, SC.

Eleanor was an active member of Trinity Cathedral, a volunteer at several Columbia shelters, and a long–standing member of the Alliance Francaise. For her contributions to French culture, the French government named her a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques in 1985.

Her husband, Horace, was one of the founders of the Greater Piedmont Chapter of the Explorers Club and was awarded the Sweeney Medal, the highest honor given by the club. Eleanor served as the club’s secretary for many years and became a member, too, attending several Explorers Club Annual Dinners in New York after her husband’s death.

In 2000, Eleanor moved to the South Carolina Episcopal Home at Still Hopes, where she resided at the time of her death.

Eleanor is survived by three children, Deborah Babel of Boone, NC; Charles Byrne of Richmond, California; and Malcolm Byrne of Washington DC; two sisters, Sally McGowan Rice of Wolfboro, NH and Mary Lee Allison of Freedom, NH; and seven grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Healing Arts, c/o Heidi Darr–Hope, SC Cancer Center, 7 Medical Park Drive, Columbia, SC 29203.

A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Saturday, February 11, 2006, at 1 pm with The Very Reverend Dr. Philip C. Linder and The Reverend Canon Robert G. Riegel officiating. Entombment will be in the Trinity Columbarium. A reception will follow. Shives Funeral Home is assisting the family.