Ken Pridgeon art gallery opens to honor fallen heroes

HOUSTON, Texas (FOX 26) - At 83 years old Ken Pridgeon see's more sorrow than any of us many ever see. He paints portraits of fallen heroes, 6 days a week. "I paint all the time I paint about 13 to 15 hours a day, six days a week, I go to church on Sunday and I don't paint", says Pridgeon.

In the last few years he's painted hundreds of portraits. "I did the 13 that were murdered in Fort Hood", says Pridgeon.

It started back in 2010 with a request from a friend. They asked if he could paint Private Wesley Riggs who served during Operation Iraqi Freedom and was killed in action. Now he finally has a place where he can display them all, his own studio and gallery. Ron Walkoviak, President of the board of the Cy-Champ Public Utility District says, "we should honor our fallen heroes and Ken has done a wonderful job with his paintings to do that and it compliments very well the memorial that we built just down the road here".

Many people don't know that Pridgeon is a veteran himself, having served in the Air Force from the 1950's to the 1960's.

A big reason why he puts so much time and effort into help military families who are grieving, his way of continuously serving our country. "Everyone of them will be looking at you and that's the first thing that family looks at is they hold them and look them in the eyes and say oh that's Jimmy's eyes so anyway that's what I do and what I will do until God takes me out of here", says Pridgeon.

The grand opening for the Fallen Warriors Portrait Gallery will be held Saturday, March 24 at 10 a.m.