Larry Francis Lebby, (September 8, 1950 – July 21, 2019) is a native South Carolinian. He was a nationally known painter, printmaker and artist working inColumbia, South Carolina.

Lebby was one of the Black students to integrateAirport High School. He attendedAllen University and transferred to theUniversity of South Carolina, graduating with aMaster of Fine Arts in 1976.^[1] Lebby spoke about the role of University of South Carolina PresidentThomas F. Jones in his successful transfer.^[2]

Lebby served on the board of the South Carolina Arts Commission (affiliated with theNational Endowment for the Arts) and on the Governor's Task Force for the Arts.^[3]

Lebby was known for his portraiture: a number of his state and other commissioned portraits of famous legislators, judges, educators and activists hang in theSouth Carolina State House and other public spaces:

• Benjamin Mayes (1981)^[4][5]
• Richard Theodore Greener (1984)^[6]
• Modjeska Monteith Simkins (1995)^[7]
• Samuel Jones Lee^[8] andRobert B. Elliott (1998)^[9][10]
• Jonathan Jasper Wright (1998)^[11][12]
• Matthew J. Perry, Judge, US District Court (2014)^[13]
• Clementa C. Pinckney, South Carolina Senator (2016)
• Ernest A. Finney Jr., South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice (2018)^[14]
• Jimmy Carter, US President^[15][16]

Lebby was commissioned to create the portrait of Senator Pinckney after the murder of Pinckney and eight others in theCharleston church shooting in 2015. The portrait was unveiled in May 2016,^[17] and hangs in the South Carolina Senate chambers.^[18] Speakers at the unveiling included State SenatorsGerald Malloy,Hugh Leatherman, andJohn W. Matthews Jr.; State RepresentativeJoseph Neal; the widow, Mrs. Jennifer Pinckney, and the artist Larry Lebby himself.^[19]

Lebby died in 2019.^[20]

In 1987, the South Carolina Legislature noted the 'local, national and international' recognition' that Lebby's work had received with a Concurrent Resolution.^[21]

In 2024, Lebby was included in the 2024 South Carolina African American History Calendar.^[22]

In September 2024, Lebby was posthumously inducted into the Lexington School District Two Inaugural Fine Arts Hall of Fame.^[23]

• Senator Pinckney Portrait Unveiling at the South Carolina State House -South Carolina Educational Television, May 26, 2016
• Larry Francis Lebby Oral History interview -University of South Carolina, June 8, 2016
• Image: Larry Francis Lebby in obituary

• 2019 deaths
• 1950 births
• American portrait painters
• People from Columbia, South Carolina
• Artists from South Carolina
• 20th-century American painters
• 21st-century American painters
• Painters from South Carolina
• 20th-century American printmakers
• 21st-century American printmakers

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• Use mdy dates from June 2021
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