Artist, poet, author and educator, Doris Elaine Blue will be remembered for her dramatic and visual art and for the heart with which she wrote about issues of importance to women, children, and the homeless.
Blue founded the Huntington Theatrical Ensemble, the first all-Black theatre company in Huntington, in the early 1970s. Several members of the ensemble sharpened and/or launched their artistic and creative careers from that experience.
Blue’s one woman play, Angels on the Head of a Pin, was performed at Marshall University in 2007.
Blue has published three books of poetry, Moods and Works of Blue, A Million Dreams and Mommy What, Why, Where and How Come. Her work has been included in many anthologies including Wild Sweet Notes: 50 Years of West Virginia Poetry.
Blue’s professional career included job developer with A.C.T.I.O.N, director of the Barnett Child Care Center, and assistant director of dorm life at the Cammack Children’s Center.
Doris Elaine Blue received numerous awards from various local, state, and national organizations for her commitment to issues surrounding AIDS, domestic violence, and homelessness. Her visual art has been exhibited at the Huntington Museum of Art and the West Virginia Culture Center in Charleston.
