Gladys Black, 90, a former Lavonia resident, died May 10, 2010. She was the wife of the late William Black, daughter of the late Amelia and August Nicholson, and sister of Leslie Nicholson, Doris Meyer, and Russell Nicholson, all deceased.
Born July 2, 1919 in Jersey City, New Jersey, she lived in Warren, N.J. until retiring to Lavonia, Georgia in the 1980's. A graduate of North Plainfield High School, N.J., she pursued further study at Rutgers University, Cornell University, and Dale Carnegie School of Public Speaking. She went on to become a well known artist and sculptor, and the first women to win both national and international awards in her field. A past member of the Ward Foundation, she focused her more recent creativity on realistic wildlife, life-size wild fowl, and related public speaking engagements, both live and on daytime television.
Surviving is her daughter, Barbara Black, of North Carolina. Also nephews, Leslie Nicholson, and Glenn Nicholson (deceased), and nieces Sally Giordano, of New Jersey, and Wanda Wills of New York.
A Memorial Service will be held at the Lavonia Presbyterian Church, Saturday, May 29th at 11:00 AM. The family requests in lieu of flowers, donations to Hospice of Northeast Georgia Medical Center, for 'a special kind of caring' (The Medical Center Foundation, Inc., 2150 Limestone Pkwy., Suite 115, Gainesville, Georgia 30501) or the Lavonia Presbyterian Church, (5610 Vickery Street, Lavonia, Georgia 30553) which although knew her briefly, embraced her on her return to the town of Lavonia.