Vera Baker Williams was born on January 28, 1927, and passed away on October 16, 2015.
Vera was an American children’s writer and illustrator.
Her best known work, A Chair for My Mother, has won multiple awards and was featured on the children’s television show Reading Rainbow.
For her lifetime contribution as a children’s illustrator, she was a U.S. nominee in 2004 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children’s books.
Additionally, Vera was awarded the 2009 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature.
Vera was born January 28, 1927 in Hollywood, California.
She has one sister, Naomi. As a child, her family moved to the Bronx, New York, where her father was frequently absent during her early childhood.
Encouraged by their parents to explore the arts, Vera studied at The High School of Music & Art and Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where she received her BFA in Graphic Art in 1949.
Vera died at age 88 in October 2015.