A new exhibit on the first floor of the state Capitol honors Missouri's 57 governors and six territorial governors. The newly-opened Hall of Governors features portraits of the state's top leaders, if they've been commissioned.
The hall is the brainchild of outgoing Gov. Mike Parson. Many of the portraits were in various parts of the Missouri State Museum within the Capitol, but others had been stored in state archives due to lack of space within the museum. Many of the portraits and frames required repairs.
Parson's official portrait is hot off the easel and hanging in the new exhibit. The oil painting shows Missouri's 57th governor standing in front of a window with hay fields, a tractor, and the Missouri and U.S. flags in the background.
"Being a farm boy at heart, you never think you're going to have a portrait, at least ways I didn't ever think I was going to have one. But here we are," Parson said during a ceremony to unveil the portrait.
Due to term limits, Parson, a Republican, leaves office in January.
"Actually, when they covered my portrait upstairs, I said, 'Well, it's not a funeral we're going to. I mean, you know, you can kind of lighten up around here a little bit,'" said Parson.
Parson said when he leaves office next month, he will leave with his head up. After serving as the state's CEO for about six years, he has led the Show Me State after previous Gov. Eric Greitens resigned in scandal, through a pandemic, civil unrest, flooding, tornadoes, and an increasingly divided Republican party.
"My older brother, he told me when I first took this job, when I was first selected to do this job, he told me, 'Little brother, you had your head up when you go into that building. You make sure when you come back home, you have your head up.' And I tell you, big brother, I'm going home. I'm going with my head up, and I couldn't be more proud," said the governor.
Lisa Ober, of St. Louis, painted the official portraits of the governor and first lady.
"As a portrait artist, you spend your entire career, and I've done it for many decades, and your hope is one day you might be selected to paint the governor's portrait or the first lady's portrait or something like that. And so, it was a career milestone," said Ober.
She worked on the portraits for about one year.
"It's part of history for them," said Ober. "That's a big deal."
The hall's portraits are permanently mounted to the stone walls in the hallways and placed under glass with a name plate and mounting system installed. Museum-grade recessed lighting was installed in the ceiling to illuminate the portraits. The ceilings were also painted to reflect the stone finish color that was originally displayed on the hallway ceilings in the Capitol.