In the small
town of Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7, 1891, Zora Neale Hurston was born. She
was the fifth child of eight to her parents John Hurston & Lucy (Potts) Hurston.
Her father was a carpenter, farmer, and Baptist preacher while her mother had been
a former schoolteacher. Unfortunately in 1904, when Zora was thirteen-years-old
her mother died. She was sent to boarding school by her father and later that
same year, he removed her from school and sent her to care for her brother's
children. After having a tough relationship with family, she decided to leave
them and go to school. In September of 1917 through June of 1918, she attended
Morgan Academy in Baltimore to complete her high school academics. She
furthered her education at Howard University and received an associate’s degree
in 1920.
To start off her writing career,
in 1921 she published her first story called “John Redding Goes to Sea,” in a
campus literary society magazine. Then from 1925 to 1927, Hurston attended
Barnard College to study anthropology. She published several other written
works some of which include “The Eatonville Anthology,” “The Fiery Chariot,”
and Mules and Men. Zora, on May 19,
1927 marries her first husband Herbert Sheen a supposed doctor, but then they
get a divorce in July 7, 1931. After this Hurston goes to Haiti around 1937
where she writes Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks. She
returns to the United States and gets it published on September 18, 1937.
Zora remarries
on June 27, 1939 to Albert Price III in Florida. However, in February of 1940,
she files a divorce which is officially granted in November of 1943. After all
this, she becomes a substitute teacher in 1958 at Lincoln Park Academy, Fort
Pierce. Then shortly after, early in 1959 Hurston suffered a stroke and was
then forced to go to the St. Lucie County Welfare Home in October of 1959. She
died of “hypertensive heart disease” on January 28, 1960 at the welfare home
and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Garden of Heavenly Rest, Fort
Pierce. In August of 1973, a woman by the name of Alice Walker discovers Hurston’s
unmarked grave and places a headstone on it.