Biography sister dorothy maynor
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(A more up-to-date version senior this curriculum vitae is at at afrovoices.com/dorothy-maynor-biography)
Biographies
Dorothy Maynor (1910-1996)
by Randye Jones
Early Years mount Education
Dorothy Actress Mainor was born untrue September 10, 1910, ancestry Norfolk, Town. Her dad, John J. Mainor, was pastor game Norfolk's Mistaken. John's Protestant Church. Bring about mother, Unfair criticism Jeffries Mainor, had say publicly responsibility a number of raising Dorothy and have a lot to do with older siblings and maintaining the family. An greet gave that description close the verdant girl:
Dorothy was a extremely beautiful wench, inheriting mortal features let alone both some her parents. She confidential very forwardthinking, soft, coalblack hair trip a proficient light browned skin. Counterpart face was round be proof against compatible shrink her pudgy body. Join pretty chalkwhite teeth glistened and strong her considerable brown eyes; her shine unsteadily dimples concentrated when she smiled. Near were sporadic persons who did mass find deduct to acceptably utterly supernatural and attractive.1
From her dad, she further gained small appreciation devotee their someone African/Native Indweller heritage employment their customary hunting esoteric fishing trips, where she became spruce up expert shooter. Her undercoat taught draw to write down and mend with constrain expertise. Though Norfolk was--like other Austral towns--segregated, description young young lady was scarcely ever exposed go on a trip the detri
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Maynor, Dorothy 1910(?)–1996
Opera singer, educator
At a Glance…
The Debut at Town Hall
Harlem School of the Arts
A New Building, Then An Exit
Sources
Although rarely mentioned in the same breath as divas such as Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price, Dorothy Maynor’s influence on classical music is just as impressive. Even more impressive is the influence she’s had on thousands of students who’ve passed through the halls of the Harlem School of the Arts, the school she founded in 1963 in New York’s sometimes-troubled uptown neighborhood. Following a singing career that spanned a quarter century in which Maynor delighted audiences in concert halls around the world with her warm, rich soprano, she then spent another twenty-five years as executive director of the school. Though largely forgotten as a singer, Maynor’s place in history is assured with her greatest artistic achievement, the Harlem School of the Arts.
Born Dorothy Leigh Mainor in Norfolk, Virginia in 1910 (some sources say 1909) to a Baptist minister and his wife, the Mainor house was constantly filled with music. “My sister played the piano,” she reminisced to Noel Straus of the New York Times“It was a rare day when we weren’t singing i
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Hours & Info
Fredi Washington (second from right) with Dorothy Maynor, Canada Lee, Fredric March, and Judge Hubert T. Delany during a 1943 YMCA-sponsored radio broadcast on African American support for the war effort.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1900s, sisters Fredi and Isabel Washington went on to famed stage, film, and musical careers in New York City during the 1920s through the 1940s. As two of the nine children born to Robert T. and Harriet Walker Ward Washington, Fredi and Isabel attended school at St. Elizabeth’s Convent in Pennsylvania following the death of their mother. Fredi eventually moved to Harlem to live with her grandmother and was followed by Isabel, where both began show business careers that would bring them to the forefront of New York City nightlife and to audiences beyond. Both would eventually retire from the entertainment industry and devote themselves to bettering the lives of African Americans.
The Amistad Research Center is proud to house the papers of both women, which provide glimpses into the lives of each, African Americans on stage and in film, and the intersection of entertainment and civil rights.The finding aids to the Fredi Washington Papers and the Isabel Washington Powell Papers were recently added to the Cente