The fall magazine theme is Motivation and our featured volunteer, Elmer Lucille Allen, totally exemplifies this. She lived through a boat rescue from her grandmother’s home, still standing, during the 1937 Flood when she was 5 years old. This is represented on the Smoketown mural by a painting of her grandmother’s house and raindrops. Other images include the faces of her grandmother and mother, her lifelong best friend Loretta Manson whom she lost to cancer, her using a “balance” in a lab (she was the first Black professional hired by Brown Forman as a chemist, where she worked for 30 years). After this career she went back to school at UofL and became an expert in fiber arts; her work has been displayed at the Carnegie Center, the Speed Museum, and other places (also on the mural). The furthest image to the right is of Elmer at her current age, designing a ceramic teapot, which was another specialty of hers.
Click here to watch a video about the design and completion of the mural.
Read more about her story here, including a photo spotlight of Elmer.
By Patti Hartog
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