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Guide to the Memry Midgett Papers
MS 163
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Table of contents
Title: Memry Midgett papers
Dates: circa 1860s-2013
Bulk Dates: circa 1860s-1945
Collection number: MS 163
Collector:
Midgett, Memry, 1920-2013
Collection Size:
2.75 linear feet
(10 boxes + 1 oversized box)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
Abstract: The Memry Midgett papers consists of photographs, correspondence, musical programs, and artifacts documenting the musical
career and family history of Memry Midgett.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Permission to publish from the Memry Midgett Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.
Memry Midgett papers, MS 163, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.
The Memry Midgett Papers were donated to the African American Museum & Library at Oakland by Nancy Rakela on October 8, 2013.
Processed by Sean Heyliger, Archivist, December 9, 2016.
Biography / Administrative History
Jazz pianist and social worker Memry Florence Midgett (1920-2013) was born on December 10, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois the only
child of Julia Ross and Thomas Jefferson Midgett, a bar tender and iron worker. Her parents both emigrated to Chicago, Illinois
from the American South, her mother from Tuscumbia, Alabama and her father from Hickman, Tennessee. After graduating from
Englewood High School in Chicago in 1939, she was awarded a music scholarship at the American Conservatory of Music where
she studied piano. She worked as the assistant director of music at St. Elizabeth’s High School before going on to perform
as a concert and jazz pianist and vocalist for many years. She started her career as a professional musician in the 1950s
performing as an opening act for legendary bands such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie at Downbeat and
Black Hawk night clubs in San Francisco, California. In 1954 she was discovered by Billie Holiday who asked her to play piano
with her on tour. She performed with Billie Holiday under contract for 18 months, performing with her throughout 1954-1955
including a performance with Holliday at Carnegie Hall in September 1954.
She continued performing throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s playing the lead in the San Francisco premiere of Archie
and Mehitabel and singing and playing piano as a regular performer at El Cid, Station J, and the Sampan Room night clubs.
In 1965 her musical career was tragically cut short by a near fatal automobile accident that left her bound to a wheelchair.
Following the accident, Midgett decided to change careers and returned to school earning a bachelor’s degree in developmental
psychology from the University of San Francisco and master of public health in social services administration and planning
from the University of California Berkeley. She worked as the recreation education director (1966) for the Economic Opportunity
Act Summer Youth Program in the Western Addition Target Area, area director (1967-1968) of early childhood development centers
for the Eastern Addition Head Start Program in San Francisco, a site administrator (1977-1979) at the Farragut Child Development
Center, San Francisco Unified School District, and a resource specialist in special education for Skyline High School in Oakland,
California. She was also the founder of NEMATOS (Negro Male Teachers Only), a social program providing African American youth
with African American male role models and mentors.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Memry Midgett papers consists of photographs, correspondence, musical programs, and artifacts documenting the musical
career and family history of Memry Midgett. The papers are organized into five series: Series I. Biographical material, Series
II. Music, Series III. Photographs, Series IV. Family artifacts, Series V. Assorted printed material. Biographical material
includes Memry Midgett’s resumes and funeral program, her correspondence during World War II with friends, family, suitors,
her husband, Howard Cooley, and the American Red Cross, and assorted newspaper clippings documenting her career and marriages.
The music series includes Memry Midgett’s publicity sketches, her correspondence with other jazz musicians and promoters,
and a vinyl record, “Whisper Baby Blues,” she recorded with Johnnie Ingram and His Rhythm Czars. The papers include a small
collection of musical programs featuring her performances mostly in Chicago, Illinois in the 1930s-1940s and sheet music possibly
composed by Midgett as an for opening act for other performers. Also included are sheet music with endorsements and personal
notes from band members of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington orchestras.
A bulk of the collection are photographs documenting Memry Midgett’s musical career and her family’s history in Alabama and
Illinois. The photographs are organized into three subseries: Memry Midgett, family photographs, and publicity stills. Family
photographs consists of 611 photographs of family members and friends of the Ross, Talbot, and Midgett families. A majority
of the family photographs are of Memry Midgett’s grandmother, Wass Ross, her mother, Julia Ross, and her four sisters – Carrie
Ross, Etta Ross, Mattie Ross, and Helen Ross. Many of the photographs are late 19th century and early 20th century portraits
of friends of the Ross family, consisting mostly of African Americans in Northern Alabama in and around Tuscumbia and Florence,
Alabama. There are also photographs documenting the family’s migration to Chicago, Illinois and Hot Springs, Arkansas in the
1900s-1920s. The Memry Midgett photograph subseries includes her childhood portraits, publicity photos related to her musical
career, and her vacation and family photographs. The publicity stills subseries consists of inscribed publicity stills to
Memry Midgett by jazz musicians she worked with at night clubs. The photographs are organized into subseries and numerically
by photograph identification number thereafter.
The assorted printed material series includes musical programs of other performers in Chicago, Illinois including Florence
B. Price, Anna de Rasmus, Oland Gaston, and Geraldine Overstreet, and assorted business cards, pages from an address book,
and a subdivision plat map.
Series I. Biographical material
Series II. Music
Series III. Photographs
Series IV. Family artifacts
Series V. Assorted printed material
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Midgett, Memry, 1920-2013
Price, Florence, 1887-1953
Young, Marl
African American jazz musicians--Biography.
African Americans--Illinois--Chicago--History--Pictorial works.
African Americans--Alabama--Social life and customs.
Tuscumbia Region (Ala.)--Social life and customs.
World War, 1939-1945--African Americans.