Benjamin Perkins
(1904- 1993)
Bro. Perkins, as he was widely known, was a kind and gentle man. He was a retired Marine and an ordained fundamentalist preacher. These professions gave him two themes of his work: country and God, flag and church. The gourds, canvases, boards and sundry objects on which he painted in acrylics proclaim God's love for sinful man and simple, old-fashioned patriotic messages not only in the colorful images but in printed texts as well. The third theme relates to objects from ancient Egypt, King Tut's tomb. There has never been evidence presented to indicate that he had seen the popular exhibition of the objects that was traveling around the country at the time his painting career was in its infancy. It is likely that he knew of the objects from some printed source such as the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine.
He returned to his native Fayette County following retirement from the military and a failed marriage and settled in the country four miles from the remote Bankston, Al. Here he created something of a folk environment on a sixteen-acre plot of ground. He built a small frame church-the Hartline Assembly of God Church that was home to his small congregation. It was here also that was located his house with the exterior painted in patriotic red, white, and blue.
Following their father's death in 1993, his two daughters inexplicably had the fire department from Fayette burn the house to the ground.