Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900 to 1980)
Sister Gertrude Morgan was a preacher, missionary, musician and most notably, a self-taught folk artist. She was born in Lafayette, Alabama and at the age of thirty-eight heard a voice from God telling her to become a street preacher. She left her family and moved to New Orleans, where she organized an orphanage with two other missionaries. Inspired by what she called the “Divine Word” she dressed in white and became a street evangelist establishing “The Everlasting Gospel Mission” in the French Quarter of New Orleans. She painted in order to create visual aids for her preaching.
Information courtesy of New Orleans Auction, May 2006