Marlena Smalls

Marlena Smalls is an American educator and musician of Gullah origin.^[1] She is the founder and director of the Hallelujah Singers.

Marlena Smalls
Born	Ohio, U.S.
Nationality	American

Early life

Smalls was born in Ohio to parents from South Carolina,^[2] one of their eight children.^[3] She attended Central State University in Ohio.^[4]

Career

In 1984, Smalls founded the Gullah Festival in Beaufort, South Carolina.^[5] Five years later, she formed the Hallelujah Singers to preserve the Gullah culture of the Sea Islands of South Carolina.^[4][6] The group has been designated a Local Legacy of South Carolina by the Library of Congress.^[7]

Smalls played the mother of Bubba in Forrest Gump (1994).^[4][8]

She retired from touring and performing in 2024.^[9]

Personal life

After divorcing, Smalls relocated from Dayton, Ohio,^[9] to Beaufort, South Carolina, with her six children in 1982.^[8][3] She began working as Arts Coordinator for the City of Beaufort.^[9] She and her mother (who grew up in Honea Path, South Carolina)^[9] also established the Lowcountry School for Music, where they provided piano and vocals lessons to students in the Beaufort area. They had almost two hundred students in their early years.^[3] The parents of some of her students became the original version of the Hallelujah Singers.^[1]

Smalls was inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame in 2004. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of South Carolina.^[9]