51 Facts About Oliver LaGrone

Oliver LaGrone was an African-American sculptor, poet, educator, and humanitarian.

Oliver LaGrone's collected poetry is held by the Special Collections Library of The Pennsylvania State University as well as by numerous other academic libraries and private collections.

Clarence Oliver LaGrone was born December 9,1906, in McAlester, in Indian Territory, the year before the Territory became part of the new state of Oklahoma.

Oliver LaGrone's father, William Lee LaGrone, born ten years after the abolition of slavery in the United States, to formerly enslaved parents, had settled in Indian Territory because of the relative freedoms it afforded.

William Oliver LaGrone had left Mississippi in 1895, in fear of his life following an altercation with two white men over their attack on William's mother.

Oliver LaGrone's normal school-educated father served on the school board and as an ordained pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church.

Education was important to William Oliver LaGrone, particularly educating blacks in the importance of their heritage, a legacy that informed his son's life's work.

Additionally, Oliver LaGrone sold books on black culture promoted by Dr Woodson.

Oliver LaGrone absorbed interest in unionism from a political science faculty member, young Dr Ralph Bunche.

The country's Great Economic Depression led to Oliver LaGrone having to leave Howard University after completing only his first year.

Oliver LaGrone sang for three years with a semi-professional quartet on radio programs.

Oliver LaGrone felt drawn to create, sculpting in the mahogany-like pinyon pine so plentiful in the New Mexico landscape.

Oliver LaGrone was hoping to find LaGrone's 1930 sculpture, "Black", carved from pinyon wood.

Oliver LaGrone was working in Albuquerque at odd jobs, and in the household of a civil engineer whose spouse admired LaGrone's gracious manner.

Oliver LaGrone was among artists assisted by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration.

Oliver LaGrone's 1937 cast marblestone sculpture was recast in bronze in 1991 for display in Albuquerque.

Oliver LaGrone graduated from the University of New Mexico's School of Education in 1938 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

At his wife's encouragement, Oliver LaGrone explored Cranbrook Academy of Art in nearby Bloomfield Hills.

Oliver LaGrone thereby became the first African-American to attend Cranbrook, from November 1941 to July 1942.

Milles arranged that Oliver LaGrone receive a McGregor Fund grant for advanced study in sculpture.

Oliver LaGrone's tuition was covered by a scholarship from the Student Aid Foundation of Michigan.

Oliver LaGrone felt responsibility and desire to actively oppose the advance of fascism by participating directly in the US effort in World War II.

Oliver LaGrone's interests brought him into Detroit's renaissance of black artists, not unlike the Harlem Renaissance in New York.

Oliver LaGrone gathered them into a collection for his 1949 volume Footfalls.

When, during the Communist witch-hunting era of US Senator Joe McCarthy, the Detroit Loyalty Committee asked Oliver LaGrone to inform on Robeson, Oliver LaGrone refused.

From 1954 through 1969, Oliver LaGrone taught in Detroit public schools.

Oliver LaGrone was first an emergency substitute, then a specialist in arts and crafts, and, by 1967, a high school instructor in African-American history.

Oliver LaGrone's teaching was backdrop to his Detroit accomplishments in both art and poetry circles.

Oliver LaGrone sculpted a bust of Dr Crockett's noted spouse, civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, Congressman George Crockett, Jr.

Oliver LaGrone served on the African Art Gallery Fund Committee of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Oliver LaGrone's poems appeared in The Negro Digest and the New York Times Sunday Book Review, as well as other publications.

Oliver LaGrone was invited to read his poetry in public literary venues and in radio interviews.

Oliver LaGrone was a member of a panel of poets at the 1966 Black Arts Convention in Detroit and the same year won first prize in an annual Michigan poetry contest.

Three years later, LaGrone sculpted Rev Charles A Hill, known for his courageous, practical support of those who championed the cases of worker's and civil rights, long before those efforts became recognized social movements.

Oliver LaGrone continued sculpting personally and took on private sculpting students.

In 1968 Oliver LaGrone was invited by friends in Togo to establish a base to from there explore the history of West African culture.

Personally encouraged by Gregory, Oliver LaGrone created "Odyssey of the Afro-American and His Art", a series which would take him across the country to scheduled speaking engagements in 24 states, arranged through the American Program Bureau.

Oliver LaGrone was invited by a friend on the faculty at the capitol campus of The Pennsylvania State University to speak to his class.

That led in 1970 to Oliver LaGrone's being solicited to offer studio art classes and to lecture on African American history.

Oliver LaGrone was the featured speaker at the annual convention of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies in June 1974.

In 1975 Oliver LaGrone was asked to represent PSU on the 21-member Pennsylvania Bicentennial Commission.

Oliver LaGrone is included in a 1976 volume, sponsored by Henry Ford III, featuring 100 African American leaders.

Oliver LaGrone published the volume Dawnfire and Other Poems in 1989.

Oliver LaGrone is a towering intellect, a man of prodigious creativity and physical vigor.

Single since 1947, Oliver LaGrone had in 1976 married Lillian Pauline Mitchell Graham, retired principal of an Erie, Pennsylvania public school.

Oliver LaGrone divorced again in 1992 and moved back to Detroit.

Oliver LaGrone is an elegant man and eloquent speaker, with a knowing spirit.

Oliver LaGrone was active with the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg from 1975 to 1986.

Still sculpting and writing poetry, Oliver LaGrone died at age 89, on October 15,1995.

Oliver LaGrone donated the proceeds from the sale of a bronze casting of The Dancer.

At least thirty-six other Oliver LaGrone sculptures are privately held, carved from pinyon pine or Honduras mahogany, molded in plaster and painted with a bronze patina, or cast in marblestone or bronze.