Deborah Pettway Young (1916–1997) was an American artist associated with the

Gee's Bend Boykin, also known as Gee's Bend, is an African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The te ...

group of quilters.

Life

Pronounced "D-bora", Deborah Pettway Young was the daughter of Louvenia and Paul Pettway. Her mother died when Deborah was seven years old, and she was thereafter raised by her father. He remarried twice, but Deborah had trouble adjusting to life with both of her step-mothers. She married

Nettie Young Nettie Pettway Young (1916–2010) was an American artist. She is associated with the Gee's Bend quilting collective and was an assistant manager of the Freedom Quilting Bee. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the ...

's father and together they raised three girls:

, Lola Saulsberry, and Arcola Pettway. She was active in her church community and sang in church.

Work

Young was a versatile textile artist. Never working from prefabricated patterns, she could see a dress or quilt and replicate it herself without guidance. Her daughter, Lola Saulsberry, expressed her shock at her mother's international recognition as an artist when she said in an interview, "I never dreamed that people would pay attention to her and Arcola's quilts. They were just making them to keep warm." Her work is included in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

References

1916 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American artists Gee's Bend quilters {{US-artist-stub