Anna-Maria Bernardes BasomGarfield, KS

Anna-Maria Bernardes Basom, professionally known as Anna-Maria B. Cool,  died at home on March 22, 2026.  She was born in Harrisburg, Pa., on August 22, 1956, to Marilia (Bernardes) Coleman and Harry Coleman, who had met, and wed, in Brazil. She grew up in the suburbs of Harrisburg, and after graduating from high school in 1975 entered Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.  She left college after only a year, to help care for her father at home.  During this time she worked retail jobs and performed in musical theater—typically, she said, as ‘the scantily clad French maid’.  Since childhood she had loved to draw, and clearly had talent, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when in 1982 she was accepted into The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art.  As one of the few female students—not only considerably older than the guys, but very cute and vivacious—she had a blast, and made many life-long friends.

Hallmark hired her directly after graduation in 1985  to work in their Licensing Design Studio, at corporate headquarters in Kansas City.  She met Andrew Cool at Hallmark and they married in 1987.  Although their marriage did not last, their friendship did, and she remained  Anna-Maria B. Cool, professionally, for her art work the rest of her life.  She left Hallmark in 1990 to pursue a free-lance career as one of the 3 female artists that Marvel Comics used to draw Barbie and Barbie Fashion comics.  After the Barbie comics were discontinued in 1995, she returned to Hallmark, and continued designing and drawing scores of products featuring licensed characters such as Peanuts, Garfield, Tweety Bird, Pink Panther, Bugs Bunny, etc., for greeting cards, party units, and special projects.  In 1997 she ‘invented’ Baby Snoopy and Baby Woodstock.  Hallmark sent her and a creative team to California where they met with Charles Schultz who was not only charmed by her Baby Snoopy concept, but also by Anna-Maria herself, as she sat next to him at his drawing table.  Schultz approved Hallmark to produce products based on her concept, which generated very significant profits.

In 1995 she met Thon Basom,  via a personal ad, and it was pretty much love at first sight for both of them.  After a brief 8 year courtship, they married in Vegas (3/3/03), quit their jobs in Kansas City and moved to Garfield, KS, population 175.  There, as a free-lance artist she worked on several large projects:  designing, drawing and coloring all the artwork for The Real Tooth Fairy books, written by Marilyn Bollinger, drawing all the illustrations for 2 new Oz books, written by Gina Warwick,  and illustrating several comic book stories.  During this time she also wrote a 600 page Captain Hook fantasy novel which is in the process of being published.  She was the Garfield Postmaster for several years, a position completely outside her comfort zone, but one she loved, and handled beautifully, and only relinquished when required to transfer to another town.

Anna-Maria’s interests and knowledge were wide-ranging.  She loved music of all kinds, had a great voice, and would typically harmonize when singing along to pop songs.  There were very few 60’s and 70’s jingles or TV theme songs for which she didn’t know the words and tune, and the same was true for  most musicals from the 30’s through the 80’s.  Captain Hook, Wonder Woman, vampires, bats, and cats were special interests and she had extensive collections of them all.  She enjoyed board games with family and friends, crossword puzzles (New York Times, in ink), performances of opera, musical theater, and plays, and any movie on TV that was a ‘costumer’—pirates, sword and sandal epics, knights in armor, etc.   One of her greatest joys was being a guest artist at various Comic Cons:  Kansas City, Des Moines, Wichita, etc., from the late 80’s until her health interfered.  She loved interacting with the crowds—particularly the young girls—encouraging and mentoring those who wanted to be artists, or drawing sketches of anything a fan might request.

Anna-Maria was truly a well-loved, extraordinary woman, who brought joy to many, many lives.

She is survived by her husband, Thon A. Basom, M.D. of Garfield, Ks;  3 siblings:  Felice Coleman of Corona, Ca., Dennis Coleman of Eureka, Ca., and David Coleman of Mechanicsburg, Pa.; and one niece Britt Coleman of Los Angeles, Ca.  She was preceded in death by her parents Harry Coleman and Marilia Coleman, and her niece Aliree Coleman.

A Celebration of Life will be held at Ox Cafe & Bakery, Livestock Exchange Building, 1600 Genessee St, KC, MO on Saturday June 20, from 2-6pm.

Arrangements in care of Beckwith Mortuary, PO Box 477, Larned, Kansas 67550. Personal condolences may be left at www.beckwithmortuary.com.

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