Marlene Bennett Jones

Ms. Marlene Bennett Jones found her way to quilting through the memory and influence of her mother, Ms. Agatha Bennett, affectionately known as “Cat,” a beloved Gee’s Bend woman who raised fourteen children. Ms. Marlene remembers watching her mother’s hands constantly moving as she sewed and quilted, often gathering with other women in the Bend to quilt in groups.

Although she was not required to learn quilting as a child, Ms. Marlene began quilting more deeply after her mother’s passing in 2006. After the loss of her father in 2007, she created more than twenty quilts using her parents’ clothing and gifted them to family members as a way of honoring their memory.

Quilting became both her healing and her passion. Her work has been exhibited and installed in museums throughout the United States.