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"Rockwell had these images in his head, and he wanted you to smile or be wide-eyed in a certain way. You have to be a little actor, you see, and I probably was a little embarrassed," said Trachte, who was 5 or 6 when he posed for a painting of a little boy and girl in pajamas, holding hands and peering up at Santa Claus. Years later, Trachte and his brother found a Rockwell hidden in a wall at his parents' house; "Breaking Home Ties" sold at auction in 2006 for $15.4 million. Rockwell knew just what he wanted, instructing the children to sit or stand in certain positions with particular expressions and to wear certain clothing, often providing Scout uniforms, or in one case, the velvet outfit that Hall wore for the cover of an edition of the book "Little Lord Fauntleroy." "I find his detail just amazing," said Hall, whose father was a real estate agent who sold Rockwell his first and second home in town. She noted that Rockwell managed to paint the small piece of tape around her leg from a sprained ankle that appeared above her bobby sock: "He didn't miss the details." Edgerton -- who went on to write the memoir "The Unknown Rockwell: A Portrait of Two American Families," about a farm boy growing up next door to the Rockwells
-- modeled for his neighbor mostly as a Scout, with his image published in four calendars. The last time he modeled was in 1964, after Rockwell had moved about 65 miles away to Stockbridge, Mass., now home to the Norman Rockwell Museum. Edgerton appeared as a
scoutmaster with his son, then 9, in a painting called "Growth of a Leader," showing four profiles of a Scout progressing from a child to an adult with a graying sideburn
-- much like Edgerton has today. "He was a wonderful guy," Edgerton said. "He made you feel you were the most important person in the world when you were doing it."
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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