Many tough guys.

Well, C. Edgar Patience, for him, coal was his art.

He was born here in West Pittston and learned coal carving from his father, who was the son of a former slave.

In the 1950s, his work began to receive critical acclaim and major corporations were commissioning his work.

Many pieces are now in national museums and collections around the US.

In 2021, his daughter, Juanita Patience Moss, was our guest and she talked about his father's legacy.

(gentle music) - I guess he got tired of just making little trinkets, and he looked at a piece of coal and he said, "Oh, I can do something else with that."

And his father probably said, "Oh no, we have to make a living here.

We have to make all these ashtrays and all these paper weights and make gifts and crafts for people coming to the area."

But that bust of George Washington sat in our dining room for years.

I remember that as a kid.

I don't know when my father started it, but I know it was finished when it went to the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton.

There it is.

- [Erika] Wow.

And so he did carve a wide range of pieces, realistic works like the elephant and the Mack Trucks' bulldog.

- Yes.

- [Erika] That was a commission.

- [Juanita] I think when he was doing the abstract work, he just saw like that piece of coal right there.

He just decided, "Let me see where it will go.

Hopefully it will not fracture," and a lot of the pieces of coal did fracture.

Now that geodes belongs to me too.

I have that here in my home.

So I think he just said, "Well, let's see where it's going and then I will give it a name."

- [Erika] I think it was interesting to hear that he also would explore museums and books and look at the work of Henry Moore, who actually was from a mining family in England.

So there's a wonderful connection there.

- His legacy is that beautiful altar at King's College.

He felt that that was his premier work.

He was so happy to have had that permission to be able to do that.

So when people go to this church and they see that altar, and they see the beauty of it, and they remember their ancestors, not only the Corgan family that donated it, but the ancestors of other people who were in the Valley, I hope that they will remember how important coal was at one time.

(gentle dramatic music)