Alvena Seckar

Alvena Vajda Sečkar (March 1, 1916 – March 8, 2012) was an American painter, children's book author, and social activist. The child of Slovak immigrants to the United States, much of her work deals with the immigrant experience in Appalachian coal mining towns.

Alvena Sečkar was born on in McMechen, West Virginia. Her father Valentine Sečkar was from Ružindol and her mother Susan "Zuzi" Vadjdak was from Orava. Her family moved frequently and her schooling was sporadic until her mother left her father due to his alcoholism, eventually settling in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1929 and opening a small restaurant at 127 Allen Street in Allentown. From 1941 to 1942, she served as the Assistant Keeper for Textiles at the Cooper Union Museum. During the 1940s, she had one-woman shows in New York City and Pittsburg. She earned a master's degree from NYU in 1949.

Sečkar saw herself as a political artist and throughout her life devoted artistic and personal effort to a variety of causes. At NYU, she created posters in support of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. In the 1980s, she sent a painting to Cesar Chavez of his mother's childhood church, the Mission San Xavier del Bac, and he proudly hung it in his office. Her painting of an African-American girl being driven to school amidst anti-desegregation protests is in the National Civil Rights Museum in New Orleans.

Sečkar spent the rest of her life in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, where she became a local fixture and where May 24 was designated "Alvena Seckar Day" in the town. She developed multiple sclerosis in 1964 and, in 1974, began using a wheelchair. When she lost use of her right arm, she learned to paint left-handed. In 1986, Newsweek named her one of America's 100 "unsung heroes".