Rock Art of Inez Marshall

Lucas, Kansas

Inez Marshall was a Kansas feed-hauler and evangelist who began sculpting rocks after her truck rolled her into a ditch in 1937. For the next 45+ years she carved Kansas limestone into everything from animals to a one-fifth size Motel T Ford with working headlights. She said she would look at a rock and then a voice inside her head would tell her what to carve.

When Inez passed away in 1984, her brightly painted artworks were sold to cover the costs of her medical bills. The Grassroots Art Center in Lucas subsequently re-acquired over 100 of her sculptures, including the battery and wheel of a full-size limestone Harley-Davidson that she was carving when she died. Also on display is a Inez's black-and-silver memorial for the then-recently-dead President Kennedy, studded with JFK half-dollars and topped with a dove of peace. Inez sent a photo of it to the Kennedy family, but she never heard back from them. The Art Center director told us that's why Inez's JFK tribute is here and not in a presidential museum.