Edith Player Brown
Edith Player at age 17, a young African-American woman wearing her hair in a 1920s bob with bangs.
Edith Player at age 17, from a 1925 issue of The Crisis
Born
Edith Amelia Player

December 14, 1907
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedNovember 5, 1999
Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation(s)Musician, artist, arts educator
Children3, including Linda Beatrice Brown
RelativesWilla Beatrice Player (sister)

Edith Player Brown (December 14, 1907 – November 5, 1999), born Edith Amelia Player, was an American musician, artist, and arts educator in Akron, Ohio.

Early life

Edith Amelia Player was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the daughter of Clarence Cromwell Player and Beatrice Day Player. The Player family moved to Akron in 1917, as part of the Great Migration. In 1925, at age 17, she won a statewide "music memory contest", and a scholarship to Ohio Wesleyan University.[1] She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan in 1929;[2] she also attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music.[3] Her younger sister was Willa Beatrice Player (1909–2003), who became president of Bennett College.[4]

Career

Edith Player trained as a pianist, played organ at church services, and taught piano for much of her life, in private lessons and as music director with the Association for Colored Community Work.[5] She also provided music at women's club meetings in the 1930s,[6][7] and in 1935 she accompanied a chorus at an anti-lynching mass meeting in Akron.[8] She composed the music for the Bennett College alma mater.[9]

Brown began painting seriously in mid-life, had a one-woman show of abstract works in 1965,[10] and had paintings in the collections of the Akron Art Museum, the Akron-Summit County Public Library,[11] and Bennett College. She taught painting classes at Bennett College and the Akron Art Institute, and moved into multimedia techniques in later years, incorporating collaged photographs and text into her paintings.[12] She was active in the YWCA, the Urban League, and Alpha Kappa Alpha.[13]

Personal life

Edith Player married Raymond R. Brown, who was a social worker, a lecturer at the University of Akron, and an executive with the Urban League.[14][15] They had four children; one of their daughters is author Linda Beatrice Brown.[16] Her husband died in 1998,[17] and she died in 1999, aged 91 years, at her daughter's home in Greensboro, North Carolina.[13][18][19]

References

  1. ↑ "The Horizon". The Crisis. 29: 270. April 1925.
  2. ↑ "Akron Student is Honored at College". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1927-01-20. p. 25. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Fraternity Names Musician of Akron". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1928-04-06. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Brown, Linda Beatrice (1998). The Long Walk: The Story of the Presidency of Willa B. Player at Bennett College. Bennett College.
  5. ↑ Thompson, George W. (1930-04-09). "Social Progress". The Akron Beacon Journal. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Federation Activities". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1931-03-23. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Club Women Elect Group, Hear Program". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1931-04-02. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Branch News". The Crisis. 42: 120. April 1935 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ "Alma Mater", Bennett Belle (1993): 2. via Internet Archive.
  10. ↑ Weiner, Bernard (1965-01-10). "Edith's Honest 'Poet'". The Akron Beacon Journal. p. 102. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Untitled by Edith Brown". Summit Live365. Archived from the original on 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  12. ↑ McKee, Pamela. "Creativity in a Time of Social Change: African American Art in Cleveland, 1940 to 1970" in Yet still we rise : African American art in Cleveland, 1920-1970 (exhibit catalog, 1996): 47-48. ISBN 9780963956248
  13. 1 2 "Obituary for Edith Amelia Player Brown". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1999-11-08. p. 22. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Mihelich, Dennis N. "World War II and the Transformation of the Omaha Urban League" Nebraska History 60 (1979): 401-423.
  15. ↑ McMahan, Kim (1989-12-24). "Modesty, Dedication Strong Suits of Retired AU Lecturer". The Akron Beacon Journal. p. 49. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ Brown, Linda Beatrice (2013). Belles of Liberty: Gender, Bennett College, and the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro, North Carolina. Women and Wisdom Press. ISBN 978-0-9888937-0-2.
  17. ↑ "Area Civil Rights Pioneer Raymond R. Brown, 91". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1998-08-23. p. 28. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Haferd, Laura (1999-11-08). "Former Akron Artist Dies in N. Carolina". The Akron Beacon Journal. pp. C1. Retrieved 2021-02-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Haferd, Laura (1999-11-08). "Brown Memorial Service Planned for Next Week". The Akron Beacon Journal. pp. C4. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
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