Nora Ezell

Nora Lee McKeown Ezell (born June 24, 1919 in Brooksville, Mississippi; died September 6, 2007 in Tuscaloosa) was a noted quilter.

Ezell was the 4th daughter of 10 children born to James McKeown, a Birmingham steelworker, and his wife, Laura Daley. Nora worked as a seamstress after dropping out of high school. After she married, she and her husband, Joseph, moved to Paterson, New Jersey, where she sewed in the mills. She contracted breast cancer and had a double mastectomy before beating the disease. She retired after her husband and only daughter died in the mid 1980s and moved to Mantua, in Greene County, returning to quilting, which she and her daughter had begun in the 1960s to pass the time.

After a story quilt she designed depicting the history of the University of Alabama was shown, her quilts soon became recognized as works of art. She was presented with a Folk Heritage Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts in 1990 and a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1992. Her work is in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.

In 1989 the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute commissioned a story quilt from Ezell to entitled "A Tribute to Civil Righters of Alabama". A year later collector Jim Sokol commissioned another story quilt, "Beautiful Birmingham" to highlight landmarks in the city. He and his wife donated it to UAB.

Ezell died of a stroke in September 2007. She was survived by four granddaughters.

References

• Hevesi, Dennis (September 17, 2007) "Nora Ezell, Alabama Quilter, Dies at 88." New York Times.
• Kemp, Kathy (September 30, 2007) "Miss Ezell: A treasure and a friend." The Birmingham News