For decades, Booker T. Bell’s handiwork was everywhere — from the colorful designs on commercial vehicles to yachts docked in Annapolis, Maryland, to the towering billboard welcoming crowds into the Delaware State Fair — all of it hand-painted. The Greenwood artist’s creative contributions rose above the landscape of the mid-Atlantic and adorned its businesses on such a massive scale that it is difficult to fully appreciate. Mr. Bell worked for the Coopersmith family at their dress shop in Milford, which is where an interest in painting began to flourish, said his son, Bryant Bell, who lives in Dover.“Mr. Coopersmith taught my dad the business and also set up an art studio for him inside the dress shop,” he said. Booker painted their signs and did the lettering.
