Burroughs, Margaret (1 November 1917–21 November 2010), artist, educator, and institution builder, was born Victoria Margaret Taylor (later reversed to Margaret Victoria) in St. Rose Parish, Louisiana, the youngest of three daughters, to Christopher Alexander “Tooker” Taylor, a farmer and laborer, and Octavia Pierre, a teacher and domestic worker. Margaret Taylor’s first five years were idyllic, playing along Mississippi River levees, roaming fields and woods, and gaining an early education in the back of a Baptist church where her mother conducted classes. Unlike many descendants of enslaved people, the Taylors and Pierres were unusually fortunate to know their ancestry. Throughout her life, Taylor would emphasize the importance of identity and knowing one’s roots. Mae-Mae, her full-blooded Creole maternal grandmother, lived across the river in Ama and regaled Margaret with stories about their family, experiences during slavery, and African heritage. Such stories bolstered Taylor when she met her own life’s challenges....
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Burroughs, Margaret (1 November 1917–21 November 2010), artist, educator, and institution builder
Mary Ann Cain
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De Cora, Angel (1868 or 1869–6 February 1919), artist and educator
Anne Ruggles Gere
De Cora, Angel (1868 or 1869–6 February 1919), artist and educator, was born in northeast Nebraska on the Winnebago Indian reservation to David Decora (Hagarsarechkaw), son of Winnebago chief Little Decora, and Elizabeth Lamere, daughter of a French Canadian fur trader and a Winnebago Metis woman. (De Cora is sometimes spelled DeCora or Decora.) Angel’s earliest education occurred at the reservation boarding school, and in ...
