Woodie Long was a house painter for twenty-five years before he began experiencing health problems due to his occupation. He was depressed by his doctor’s orders to stop painting in 1987. Born in Plant City, Florida on October 19, l942, he was the son of a migrant farmer who settled in one place for a while to be a sharecropper. Being one of twelve children, Woodie was expected to work in the fields rather than to attend school so that work for him began at three years of age, carrying water to the seedlings in the fields. His family moved constantly “to where the work was” for the first fourteen years of Woodie’s life. Then, after moving to a city housing project in Tampa, Florida, his father soon abandoned the large family. Woodie never attended public school... (continue reading)