There are so many people of a certain age who are passing away right now at the end of a long life, having lived through the 20th century, who have made Black history in their local communities.
On Legacy, their lives are commemorated.
In honor of Black History Month, we wanted to share several wonderful obituaries we’ve seen recently from some of our many local news partners, honoring the memory of remarkable people whose lives didn’t just touch history, they were history.
She Challenged the Coaches
Often, what makes an obituary unforgettable is when it tells a specific story from someone’s life. Here’s a great example: the story of how Anita Page Lindner, who died recently at the age of 87, became the first African American student ever to live on campus at her college outside Philadelphia:
“As a toddler, she suffered a near-crippling bout of Rheumatic Fever. She celebrated her recovery by singing and dancing in her crib.… After graduating from Lower Merion High School in 1950, Anita enrolled at West Chester State Teacher’s College, where she was invited to compete on their varsity women’s field hockey and basketball teams. There were no housing accommodations for people of color on the campus, so Anita challenged the coaches. She would not commute late at night between West Chester and her family home in Ardmore. If they wanted her to play for West Chester, she would have to live on campus. In the fall of 1950, Anita Page and her roommate were the first African American students to live on campus.” (Read her full story at the Main Line Media News.)
She Wore Badge No. 1
“Willa Chandler, 101, of the Hill District, Pittsburgh, departed Friday, Jan. 15, 2021…. ‘Miss Kitty’ as she was affectionately known, was the first African American meter maid police officer of Pittsburgh. She wore badge No. 1. She later retired from the prothonotary’s office.
“In 2009, on Sept. 15, it was declared Willa ‘Kitty’ Chandler Day in the City of Pittsburgh. She was given the key to the city for contributions to society and presented with a Resolution by the late council member Tonya Payne and eight other council members, including now Mayor William Peduto.” (Read her full story at the Tribune-Review.)
He Had a Satiric Eye and a Clever Pen
Professor William Cook was a brilliant scholar of the English language who inspired both high school and college students as a teacher, and went on to help found and/or lead numerous groups that promoted both literature and teaching, including the Mississippi Delta Teaching Project, the National Black Theater Summit, and Dartmouth College’s Afro-American Studies program.
“In addition to earning a reputation for being one of the most effective educators of his generation, Prof. Cook was also an accomplished poet, author, and production director. His work touched on African American and ancient Greek and Roman poetry and also explored the intersections of music and poetry. Bill was widely known for talents as an illustrator and artist. He had a satiric eye and a clever pen.”
(Read his full story at the Trentonian.)
From the Air Force to Doughnuts to Bank President
When Charles McKinley Reynolds died the day after Christmas in 2020, his family announced they’d be following his wishes to wait and hold a post-pandemic memorial service on the day he would have turned 85: January 11, 2022. In the meanwhile, they wrote a long, full, loving tribute to this fascinating man who got a degree in mortuary science in between making half a dozen different kinds of history…
“In 1955, Charles was admitted as a freshman at Morehouse College with an eye on a degree in business. The next year, however, he married his high school sweetheart, Estella Henry, and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. This took him to assignments in Biloxi, Mississippi; Antigo, Wisconsin… Marietta, Georgia… and the Thunder Bay District of Ontario, Canada, where Charles was among the first African Americans to be trained in the Air Early Warning and Control system, as part of the nation’s Air Defense Command….
“Returning to Albany, Charles became, like his mother and paternal step-grandmother, an educator. At the all-Black Southwest Junior High School, he taught social studies, and coached football, all while operating his own doughnut shop, and working part-time at a local funeral home.
“One day, his former Morehouse professor, recalling Charles’ acumen for high finance, noted that the U.S. Treasury Department was seeking applicants for federal bank examiner positions…. In 1965 [Charles] became the first African American assistant national bank examiner, in the South.
“That experience and the network he developed in the process put him on the map as a savvy operator in the financial world. Charles was named president of Citizens Bank and Trust in Atlanta, at the young age of thirty-five.”
(Read his full story at the Naples (Fla.) Daily News.)
A Passion for Learning
In December 2020, the University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State U.) honored Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis with a historical marker celebrating her as the school’s first Black professor. Just weeks later, in January, she died at the age of 86. Her obituary detailed her remarkable life story:
“She was a writer, scholar and university professor whose life was defined by her passion for learning and her commitment to equality…. Born in 1934 in Florence, Alabama into a family of educators, she had a forty-year career in academia… she chaired a department, directed a graduate program, co-founded the Memphis Black Writers’ Workshop, chaired the Tennessee Humanities Council, and organized the Du Bois Honors Program.
“A pioneer in the struggle for racial and gender equality, she organized a student protest in high school, participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, was jailed during the Civil Rights Movement, helped lead a boycott of Memphis public schools, and joined protest marches in Washington, DC. She was also the first African American admitted to Westover, a preparatory school in Connecticut; was one of the first Blacks to receive a Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University; and was the first African American faculty member at Memphis State University, from which she was denied admission in 1957.” (Read her full story at the Commercial Appeal.)
See more stories of Black history in people’s Legacy obituaries daily.
