Artist Theora Hamblitt was born in Paris, Mississippi, in 1895. She taught school in Lafayette County for several years. She quit teaching in 1931 to care for her ill mother. She moved to Oxford in 1939.
While living in Oxford, she rented out rooms in her house and did sewing to earn money. She took her first art class in 1948 at the University of Mississippi, at the age of 55.
Her work is in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art and has been featured on UNICEF cards and calendars. A large portion of her work is in the collections at the University of Mississippi Museum. The large majority of her work is oil paintings, but she also produced drawings and glasswork.
Hamblitt died in 1977.
View the Theora Hamblitt Collection at the University of Mississippi Museum.