By Jess Nowak
Zora Neale Hurtson was born January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama. Shortly after being born Zora’s family and she moved to Florida. She stayed in school until she was 13; she dropped out to take care of her siblings. She had a difficult home life was difficult because her father, who was a pastor, married another woman directly after her mother died and Zora never got along with her stepmom. Later in life she had still not graduated so at the age of 26 she decided to cut 10 years of her life and be 16 to attend high school for free. After completing high school she went to Barnard College and graduated in 1928.
In her adult life Zora had married a man named Herbert Sheen in 1927, who was a jazz musician and a physician, but later divorced him. She then married one Albert Price, but once again divorced him a few months latter. Zora had written several pieces of literature including perhaps her most famous work Their Eyes Were Watching God, which she wrote in seven weeks. Their Eyes were watching God later became a play and a motion picture. The book was published in 1937 and was considered radical for its time because of its having a black female antagonist. She however never received the proper finances and as a result ended up living at St. Lucie County Welfare Home, where she died from a hypertensive heart disease.
