Sister Gertrude Morgan (April 7, 1900 – July 8, 1980) was a self-taught African-American artist, musician, poet and preacher. Born in LaFayette, Alabama, she relocated to New Orleans in 1939, where she lived and worked until her death in 1980. Sister Morgan achieved critical acclaim during her lifetime for her folk art paintings. Her work has been included in many groundbreaking exhibitions of visionary and folk art from the 1970s onwards. Early life Sister Morgan was born Gertrude Williams in Lafayette, Alabama, to mother Frances "Fannie" Williams and father Edward Williams. She was the seventh child of a poor rural family. For reasons unknown, Sister Morgan left school before completing the third grade. Around 1917 her family moved to Columbus, Georgia, where she worked as a servant and nursemaid in a private home. Marriage Gertrude Williams married Will Morgan on February 12, 1928. She lived with her husband at 1324 North Avenue in Columbus, GA. While there is no evidence of a divorce, it is known that Sister Morgan left Columbus alone in 1938, traveling first to Alabama and then to New Orleans, where she would settle. Call to religion Early involvement in the church Sister Morgan's first documented involvement with religion came in her late teens, when she joined the Rose Hill Memorial Baptist Church, a local congregation in Columbus, Georgia. After she began painting in 1956, Sister Morgan documented this time in her life in the paintings THE ROSE HILL MEMORiAL BAPTiST CHURCH, Columbus Ga. (n.d.) and Rose Hill Memorial Baptist Church (n.d.). These paintings narrate the shifts in the Rose Hill church leadership, after the death of Reverend Miller in 1930. Revelations from God The first of many revelations that Gertrude was to experience came in 1934. The story of this revelation is inscribed on one of her paintings, 1324 NO AVE COLUMBUS GA. (n.d.). On it she has written, "Sitting in my Kitchen one night I heard a great strong Voice speak to me said I'll make thee as a signet for I have chosen thee I got this calling on the 30th day of Dec in 1934 I had to answere to my calling and one day give up and Pack up and go … a chosed vessel of God's its wonderful to Be. God called me a chased me and turned me into the hands of his son and JESUS said take up your