NOTED PHOTOGRAPHER PAUL LUEDERS DIES AT 81

Well-known photographer Paul Lueders, 81, of 1115 Henderson died unexpectedly Saturday, Sept. 23, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

He had been a professional photographer in Cape Girardeau since 1933. He was particularly known for his portraiture, which hangs on the walls of generations of Cape Girardeans.

"I've done a couple thousand wedding portraits," he said in a 1990 profile. "I might not be able to remember all their names, but I know the face."

He attended Washington University's School of Fine Arts, and in 1961 earned his master of photography degree from the Professional Photographers of America Inc. He was one of a relatively few portrait photographers to gain that distinction from the PPA.

In 1979, his photographs of rare materials in Louis Daniel Brodsky's William Faulkner collection appeared in three different publications, including a new edition of Faulkner's "Mississippi Poems."

In 1975, he participated in a project the illustrated the Saxon migration into the area, taking thousands of photographs in the Saxony Hills of East Perry County. The program was presented by Southeast University on the east lawn of Academic Hall.

Lueders was 8 when his father, Herbert L. Lueders, began teaching him how to take photographs. Herbert L. Lueders, founded Lueders Studio here in 1925. He sold his interest in the studio to his son in 1957. Herbert Lueders died in 1973.

In 1990, he said the studio had 150,000 negatives on file, all of them in perfect condition. He had continued working up until the time of his death.

Lueders was an Air Force photographer during World War II, taking aerial pictures for mapping and battle planning.

He was active in the Cape Girardeau Lions Club and was a past president.

He was a member of the American Society of Photographers, and a board member, vice president and president of the Missouri Photographers Association.

He is survived by his wife, Genevieve. Other survivors are a daughter, Holly Lueders of New York City; a son, Richard Lueders of Danville, Calif.; five brothers, Herbert Lueders of Lexington, Mich., Ralph Lueders of Hinsdale, Ill., Julius Lueders and John Lueders, both of Cape Girardeau, and Morris Lueders of Hoffman Estates, Ill; a sister, Clarisse Chism of Cape Girardeau; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren..

Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home.