Emma Masley, an artist, instructor at Chatham College for 32 years and in the Carnegie Mellon University Pre-College Art Program for more than 40 years, died Monday at Family Hospice Manor in Bellevue. She was 63.

Mrs. Masley was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer 22 months ago. Her husband, Stephen M. Masley, died May 5 from kidney cancer.

"She never stopped fighting," said daughter Kate Masley, of Cleveland Heights. "Even when she began the process of dying, we didn't talk about it because that was the way she was dealing with it."

Mrs. Masley was a painter and print maker as well as a teacher. She was an active member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, which she joined in 1972 and exhibited with.

Artist Anna Marie Sninsky recalls the time when, in the early 1980s, they were both on the AAP board and posing for a 75th anniversary publicity photograph on Mount Washington against the backdrop of the city. "I can see her with her hat and smile."

Many of her friends plan, in her honor, to wear hats to Saturday's memorial service, said artist Constance Merriman.

"She had unbelievable flair" in dress as well as in her artwork. "Her work is very, very expressive, but there's a whole underlying structure of color theory and design," Mrs. Merriman said.

Kate Masley said her mother had a "wonderful sense of fashion. She used to make her own clothes. As long as I can remember, she wore hats" and she owned close to 200.

People often remarked that her mother looked like the actress Diane Keaton, Kate Masley said. After her diagnosis in 2004, Mrs. Masley and her daughter were eating at a restaurant in Los Angeles where they were attending a pancreatic cancer conference. When her mother walked out to the women's room, Kate Masley said, people in the restaurant began buzzing "Is that her? Is that her?"

Artist Pat Barefoot, who taught with Mrs. Masley in the Pre-College program, said she was extremely supportive of other artists.

"She was just as enthusiastic about their work as she was about her own. She was [also] a great teacher because she was so creative herself, and she loved her students."

Mrs. Masley had a way of "getting excited over a seemingly minor thing and making it into an adventure. Pulling a print, eating a peach ice cream cone, leafing through the pages of a new book. Life was an adventure. She would say 'Come along with me and we'll share this together,'" Mrs. Barefoot said. "Her father is an artist. She was raised that way, as an artist, by an artist."

Mrs. Barefoot said that colleagues have noted through the years that Mrs. Masley taught one how to teach, another how to live. "The way she faced her illness and the way she faced death, she taught us how to die."

When she entered the hospital before Easter, Mrs. Masley instructed her family to pick up a portfolio she'd agreed to review and materials she needed to submit her grades on time. "That's Mom -- very conscientious," Kate Masley said.

She also never stopped making artwork.

"She tried to do a lot of healing through that," Kate Masley said. "The work was very organic and very intense, almost like she was drawing the cancer."

She said Chatham is planning an exhibition of that work.

"When she passed away at the hospice, she even had a smile on her face," Kate Masley said. "We were convinced someone was definitely with her, and hoping it was my father and grandmother."

Mrs. Masley's husband, Stephen, preceded her in death by 10 days, and her mother, Magdalene Gasowski, died April 2.

In addition to Kate, she is survived by another daughter, Amy Masley of Mount Airy, Md.; her father, Walter Gasowski of Baden; brothers John Gasowski, of Export, Gary Gasowski of Hanover, and Paul Gasowski of Lee, N.H.; and two grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 1 to 4 p.m., tomorrow followed by a service for Emma and Stephen Masley, at the Jefferson Memorial Funeral Home, 301 Curry Hollow Road, Pleasant Hills.

Memorial contributions may be made to Family Hospice Manor, 301 Bellevue Road, Pittsburgh 15229.