Willie White was born on December 25, 1908 in Cranfield Mississippi near Natchez. He moved to New Orleans at age 19 and apparently lived there most of his life. His last address known to the Social Security Administration was in New Orleans, but his funeral was held in Natchez and burial was in his native town of Cranfield. He died on December 26, 2000.

Source:
Maxine Rosston, Assistant Curator, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (White's work is featured in their collection, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Fleming)

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Willie White was born to a farming couple in Natchez, Mississippi. He attended school through the third grade and in 1929, left Natchez, to work on the "quarter boats" on the Mississippi River, repairing and securing the river levee. White moved to New Orleans and worked as a waiter for approximately twenty years. He later was employed as a janitor and as a sign painter the 1950's and 1960's.He acquired an interest in painting after observing artists in the French Quarter in the early 1950's. Using house paint, he at first imitated their work but quickly developed his own ideas and techniques. White decorated his porch and fences with his first art works. His early subjects were neighborhood churches and crosses. White later gleaned images from television and his dreams, creating a visual vocabulary of dinosaurs, horses, fantastic birds, watermelons, skyscrapers, rocket ships, and planets. In the early 1960's he began to work almost exclusively with felt markers and white poster board and has used canvas only when it is provided.

Source:
Marcia Weber Art Objects