1909 - 1993

Elizabeth Layton is an internationally recognized artist from Wellsville Kansas. "Grandma" Layton did not begin drawing until the age of 67, in order to combat her history of depression. "With the art therapy, I felt like I had to tell about the depression and the shock therapy treatments, which I didn’t mind at all telling," the artist said in 1991. "But I like it when people just look at the pictures and just leave me clear out of it."

Many of Mrs. Layton’s drawings were self portraits, or ones that included her husband, Glenn. She did a series of drawings relating to her time in a nursing home, showing some of the indignities she and other residents experienced.

Mrs. Layton was clearly impressed with the work Petey Cerf had begun by forming Kansans for Improvement of Nursing Homes (KINH, now KABC) and contributed the beautiful drawing above. The original hangs proudly in the Kansas Advocates for Better Care office in Lawrence.

KABC is the only one-stop resource for detailed information about any licensed long-term care home in Kansas. To join or contribute to KABC, or for reports and publications, call toll-free: 800-525-1782.

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