Elmer Lucille Allen (born in Louisville, Kentucky, August 23, 1931) is a ceramic artist and chemist who graduated from Nazareth College (now Spalding University) in 1953.
[3] Allen was born in the Depression era in Louisville, Kentucky, at a time when it was still a segregated city.
She stated in an interview that the first artist she identified with was her teacher, Ms. Hattie Figg, who taught painting at the junior high.
She learned many functional crafts in junior high, such as shoe repair, printing, sewing, and carpentry.
She graduated from Central High School in 1949, at a time when African-American women had very few opportunities available to them.