Minnie attended college for one year in London, Kentucky. She married William Black in 1919. He died in 1973. In 1947 a stray gourd appeared alongside her driveway and she started growing gourds and making imaginative things with them. Minnie made such things as musical instruments, people and animals. When her husband retired in 1960 they converted the garage sized building next to the house into the "Minnie Black Gourd Craft Museum".

Photo by: Ted Degener