- Alabama Poets Laureate || Helen Norris, 1999-2002|| Helen Friedman Blackshear, 1995-1999|| Ralph Hammond, 1992-1995|| Morton Dennison Prouty, Jr. 1988-1991|| Carl Patrick Morton, 1983-1987|| William Young Elliott, 1975-1982|| Bert Henderson, 1959-1974|| Mary B. Ward, 1954-1958|| Samuel Minturn Peck, 1930-1938|| Act No. 92 of the 1931 Alabama Legislature created the honorary office of Poet ...www.archives.state.al.us/emblems/st_poet.html