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Lola Poston was born on November 12, 1896, in a log cabin in the Walker’s Creek section of Smyth County, Virginia. She was the oldest of the ten children of Charles Marion Poston and Ida Lodema Hammons. Charles Poston was half-Irish and half-Shawnnee, and his wife was full-blooded Shawnee.
At age 5, Lola painted a self-portrait by looking at herself in a mirror. As she grew up, she began selling her paintings on the streets of Marion, Virginia. Recognizing her extreme talent, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Lincoln, Sr., sent her to study art in Chicago. She didn’t stay long at the school. Soon she began drawing illustrations for greeting card companies, then worked for a design company in New York City.
She met her first husband, Charles E. Harriman, and World War I broke out during their European honeymoon. They escaped to England and returned to the United States.
She became something of a bohemian, traveling with her husband across America in a “house car” designed to be pulled behind an automobile. Her paintings were shown at the World’s Fair in the 1920s, and she helped decorate the White House during the Roosevelt Administration.
In 1929, she painted the murals (return to murals . . . .) for the auditorium of The Lincoln Theatre, using cotton panels with water-based paints. She was paid $50 for each painting.
After her first marriage came to an end, she married J. Ellis Dickerson and resided with him in Grayson County, Virginia, home of Mount Rogers, the highest peak in the state. She became friends with nationally renowned writer and part-time local resident Sherwood Anderson (www.sherwoodandersonfestival.com). She retired to Florida in her later years and taught arts and crafts, raised Dachshunds, and managed a flower shop.
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