Leroy Almon Sr. (1938-1997)

Local Art Legends

    Leroy Almon spent most of his life in Tallapoosa, Georgia, where he was born and died. A nondenominational evangelical preacher, Almon began carving his inspirational interpretations of spiritual and contemporary secular themes during an apprenticeship with Elijah Pierce, a well-known African American lay minister and wood carver in Columbus, Ohio. Almon met Pierce when he moved briefly to Ohio to take a job with Coca-Cola.

    First collaborating and then making his own works of art, Almon returned to Tallapoosa for another job. Like his mentor Pierce, Almon has become famous for his painted bas-relief depictions of African American life and religious imagery. Some of which has been placed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (view)