Theora Hamblett was born in Paris, Mississippi in 1893. From 1915-1930 she taught school in her hometown. She moved to Oxford, Mississippi in 1930, where she ran a boarding house for students and worked as a seamstress until 1950.
Hamblett began painting in her 50’s after taking a few art classes at the local university in 1950. In 1954, New York art dealer Betty Parsons began successfully promoting her work. Upon her death in 1977, she left all of her work to the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS.
Her work remains in many notable museums throughout the country including: Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; University of Mississippi Art Gallery, Oxford, MS; and Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS.
