https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2019-10-04/diahann-carroll-dead
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/obituaries/raye-montague-a-navy-hidden-figure-ship-designer-dies-at-83.html
Jessye Norman
Well, all three of these phenomenal women have gone on to their respective rewards. I'd been remiss as I'd only learned of Ms. Montague's passing. It'll be one year on Oct. 10th that she made transition.
Firsts. Ground-breakers. Pioneers.All the same words used to describe African Americans who defied stereotype. Who persevered despite setbacks. Who kicked in doors and begged no one's pardon. Who made others shut the eff up when they simply glanced in their direction.
To be the first, or nearly the first, in ANY capacity is a hard row to hoe for African-Americans. One must ignore bigots who LURVE to spew that one "only got the position to fill a quota." OY! One must also ignore the "crabs in a barrel mentality" from one's own and most assuredly one's own self-doubt.
Diahann Carrroll
A mother of a trifecta!
I'm sure all of these lovely women felt all of those barbs at one time or another but they kept going.
And the nigglings served them well.
Jessye, born into a musical family. the Howard University- and Peabody Observatory-trained soprano reached the stratosphere in her profession. She also paid it forward by establshing a tuition-free program for disadvantaged students interested in pursuing the arts.
Short anecdote: I have an opera buff friend who met her once. Summoned to her dressing room after a performance, my friend was met at the door by La Norman, swathed in her Blackglamour mink and pearls, and SNEAKERS! She was quite real when it came to comfort.
Diahann, singer and actress who made a name for herself by helming the TV show "Julia" where she was the STAR. She played a nurse because she refused to be a maid on a TV show. On the nightitme soap, "Dynasty" she was Dominique Deveraux, head-bitch-in-charge/ millionaire Blake Carrington's illegitimate half-sister, and a worthy adversary to Joan Colins' character Alexis Carrington. Ms. Carroll was working well into her 8th decade.
And Raye. Brilliant Raye. One of the "Hidden Figures" who was a naval engineer credited with creating the first computer-generated rough draft of a U. S. naval ship. She was the first female program manager of ships in the United States Navy.
Raye Montague
Thank you for sharing your light! May all you Queens rest in power.
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