Ouanga South Bend, Indiana, and the Premiere of a 20Th-Centuryamerican Opera

Ouanga South Bend, Indiana, and the Premiere of a 20th-CenturyAmerican Opera

WALLACE M. CHEATHAM

peras are usually premiered in metropolises famous for their the- 0aters; sometimes in a city with a major university or a music conservatory; but almost never in a high school auditorium in a small city possessing none of these cultural amenities. Yet on June 10, 1949, the opera Ouanga, with music by classical violinist and composer Clarence Cameron White and libretto by scholar and writer John Frederick Matheus, was given its first fully staged performance at Central High School auditorium in South Bend, Indiana.’ The event takes on a greater historical significance because the music and words were written by African Americans, and because the local group who performed the premiere, the Harry Thacker Burleigh Music Association, was made up almost entirely of black Hoosiers. Understand- ing the history of this association helps to explain why such a musical event occurred in such an unlikely place.

Wallace M. Cheatham’s research deals with various aspects of opera as it relates to the African- American experience. His book Dialogues on Opera and the African American Experience, conver- sations with nine African-American artists, was published in 1997. Dr. Cheatham was also a consultant for Dorothy Evans MeGinty, ed., A Documentary History ofthe National Association of Negro Musicians (Chicago, 2004). ‘South Bend Tribune, May 30,1949.

INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, 100 (June2004). 0 2004, Trustees of Indiana University 174 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

In 1933 Josephine Curtis and her husband Dr. Guy Curtis moved to South Bend from St. Louis, Missouri. Mrs. Curtis was eager to continue the active life in both music and drama that she had known in St. Louis, but she found in South Bend very few opportunities for blacks who had an interest in music and other art forms.* Taking matters into her own hands, very shortly after arriving Mrs. Curtis founded the Harry Thacker Burleigh Music As~ociation.~Her vi- sion for the group was wide-ranging: she sought a vehicle for African Americans to bond through music and theater, and to give blacks who had studied music a performance venue. She also wanted to let the larger community know that the spiritual was not the only form of black music. Curtis wanted to demonstrate that music was universal, that it had no ethnic boundaries, and that all music could be sung and enjoyed by any- one who wanted to delve into its ri~hes.~ Lorene Richardson, a former member, recalls the association this way: “The Burleigh (as we called it) was the only [black] community group in the city (or the state), the sole purpose of which was to perform music. [In addition to people from South Bend], we had members from Elkhart, Gary, and Niles, Michigan.” She also noted that the group instilled a professional demeanor in its members. “Those who participated in [the Burleigh] learned the basic protocol of performing artists; punctuality, dependability, sense of ensemble, stage movement, and dec~rum.”~ A significant number of pieces in the group’s repertoire came from the genre of operetta. This was distinctive because most black vocal performance groups in America during this period focused on opera, orato- rio, mainstream choral literature, and African-American folk music. Records document a 1933 performance of Friedrich Flotow’s opera Martha; a 1934 performance of Michael W. Balfe’s opera The Bohemian Girl; a 1935 performance of Edward Jakobowski’s operetta Two Vagabonds, and a 1937 performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s operetta Hiawatha.6

LHarryThacker Burleigh Music Association Papers, Local History/Genealogy File, (St. Joseph County Public Library, South Bend, Indiana). Hereafter Local History file, Burleigh Papers. 3Theassociation was named for African-American composer and arranger Burleigh (1866-19491, who was best known for his arrangements of Negro spirituals and for his association with Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. “Local History file, Burleigh Papers. 5LoreneRichardson, letter to author, June 22, 1998. 6LocalHistory file, Burleigh Papers; John Charles Bryant, letter to author, August 12, 2002. OUANGA 175

Table 1 Repertoire of the Harry Thacker Burleigh Music Association

Work Composer Years of Performance Nightingale Charles Strouse 1930, 1955 Martha Friedrich von Flotow 1933, 1950 The Bohemian Girl Michael Willliam Balfe 1934, 1948 Two Vagabonds Edward Jakobowski 1935 Hiawatha Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1937, 1959 The Bartered Bride Bedrich Smetana 1947 Ouanga Clarence Cameron White 1949 Fatinitza Franz von Suppe 1951 In Gay Havana Sibyl Evans Baker 1952 The Emperor’s Clothes Joseph Clockey 1953 Fortune Teller Victor Herbert 1954 Carmen Georges Bizet 1957

Sources: Burleigh Papers; John Charles Bryant letter to author, South Bend, Indiana, August 12, 2002

Reviews of these productions have not been located, suggesting that there was little or no press coverage for the first years of the association. The group had to prove itself a viable artistic entity. Had the association not reached a level of maturity and quality that commanded attention from the press, far fewer records would be available to researchers. The local newspaper began to send a reporter and to run reviews of association performances in 1947, with the production of Bedrich Smetana’s opera, The Bartered Bride. George Maurer wrote in his review titled “Bar- tered Bride Charms Crowd” that ‘‘ [ t]he cast was competent, well chosen, and the chorus was unusually well balanced.” Bohemian Girl, performed in 1934, was mounted again in 1948. “Burleigh Group Does Well by Balfe’s Gay Work” is the headline of Frank G. Schmidt’s review. “The choral work in this production is highly commendable . . . sprightly and cheerful. ,. . . The opera is given a simple production and costumes are bright.”’

’South Bend Tribune, May 28, 1947, May 14, 1949. 176 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Each fall the association presented a concert featuring art songs, arias and choruses from operas and oratorios, standard choral literature, and various genres of folk music. An opera or operetta was presented every spring.EAn examination of cast lists reveals that the group maintained a nuclear core of singers for major operatic roles throughout its history. Both the 1947 and 1948 operas, for example, listed twelve soloists; of these twelve, eight singers starred in both productions. There was also a stable group of choristers and supernumeraries. This created a repertory- company atmosphere with high standards for every production. These factors were key in the association’s growth and stability and helped to maintain community, media, and philanthropic support. At the center of the Burleighs success was a triumvirate: founder Curtis, Georgia Ward Bryant, and James Lewis Casaday. It was their col- lective effort that made the association a cornerstone of the performing arts community. Curtis came to her position as founder of the association with a performing arts background, academic training, and a history of social activ- ism. She grew up as a part of the black middle class, was a 1927 graduate of the University of Chicago, and studied music at the small, private, and almost solely Caucasian Kroeger School of Music in St. LoukgThe early years of the twentieth century were a very socially restricted time for blacks in the Midwest in general, and Curtis’s willingness to brave a white university and a white music conservatory indicates the same spirit of activ- ism that prompted her to found the Burleigh and to work, throughout her life, for the arts, better housing, and racial harmony.1° Georgia Ward Bryant was Josephine Curtis’s right arm at the association. As rehearsal pianist and accompanist, she was at the forefront of all the group’s activities. Bryant acquired her training privately within the. religious community of South Bend, through the teaching of Catholic nuns. Her son John Charles remembered his mother as being an insistent advocate for what she believed to be “good music.” Association alumni recalled Mrs. Bryant as being highly skilled, uncompromising, and a real advocate for the Burleigh.”

8LocalHistory file, Burleigh Papers. 91bid.; Maxine H. Sullivan, University of Chicago Registrar, letter to author, August 4, 1998; William C. Matney, Who’s Who Among Black Americans (4‘hed.; Lake Forest, Ill., 1985), 198. ’ODina M. Young, Missouri Historical Society Archives, letter to author, August 19, 1999. “Harry Thacker Burleigh Music Association Alumni [Roland Dickinson, Lorene Richardson, Christyne Woodridge, Alfred Lee Winters, Janette Townsend McNeil, Alice Coldman, and Lucille OUANGA 177

John Lewis Casaday was the association’s stage director. A graduate of Williams College and the University of Iowa, Casaday had come to South Bend in 1938 to serve as director of dramatic arts for the city’s school system. Association papers indicate that he became part of the Burleighs staff shortly after his arrival.12 Casaday was the only white staff member at the Burleigh. In addition to suggesting the director’s own liberal-mindedness, his many years of work with the black music group would seem to indicate its high level of quality. Casaday, like Curtis and Bryant, insisted that members learn and maintain professional standards of work and conduct. As Lorene Richard- son recalled, “Much of what was learned about the discipline of being performing artists happened through the work of Mr. Casaday.”13 If the Burleigh Music Association had never staged a premiere of an important American opera, musicologists would still record that the organization was significant and worthy of research. The premiere of Ouanga, however, elevated the Burleigh to a new level of distinction. The 1949 premiere was, for both composer Clarence Cameron White and librettist John Frederick Matheus, the culmination of a journey that began in 1924 when White became head of the music department at West Virginia State College. White (1880-1960) was a graduate of Howard University and the Oberlin Conservatory. He was already an experienced teacher, an accomplished violinist, and a published composer. Matheus (1887-1983), a graduate of Western Reserve University and Columbia University and a professor of romance languages, came to the college in 1922. The young academic was interested in Haitian culture and was also a published and prize-winning short-story author. As the two men devel- oped a close professional relationship, White came to share Matheus’s interest in Haiti, and the possibility of an artistic collaboration was

Thomas], interview with author, South Bend, Indiana, September 23, 1995, hereafter Alumni Interview;John Charles Bryant, interview with author, South Bend, Indiana, September 23,1995. ME. Bryant was also organist at Olivet African Methodist Episcopal Church; some Burleigh alumni recalled working with her there. See Alumni Interview. 12LocalHistory file, Burleigh Papers; Colletta R. Garrage, South Bend Community School Corpo- ration Administrative Secretary of Human Resource Services,letter to author, December 15,1998. Before Casaday assumed this position, Josephine Curtis probably functioned as both music and stage director, drawing on her arts training. ’)Richardson letter to author. l4Who’SWho in Colored America, eds. Christian E. Burckel and G. James Fleming (7” ed.; New York, 1950), 358-59, 548; Patricia Turner, Dictionary of Afro-American Performers (New York, 1990), 383-91. 178 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Sheet Music for White’s 1918 Setting of Four Negro Spirituals Historic American Sheet Music, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library

White and Matheus’s fascination with Haiti was part of a larger movement among European and American blacks at the time. Negritude, which grew out of, among other sources, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, was for many African Americans an historic step in the formulation of a diasporic identity. The movement emphasized and valued the African an- cestry of black Americans and fostered pride in their current heritage and culture. The movement looked to the cultural forms of the French Carib- bean as sources for recovering African beliefs and practices, and thus in the 1930s and 1940s many black artists, musicians, and writers began to OUANGA 179

study Haiti and other islands. White and Matheus’s work has an often- neglected place in the history of the m0~ement.l~ Grants from the Rosenwald and Harmon foundations, along with a monetary award from the college that White received for musical achieve- ment, financed a 1928 summer of study in Haiti for both men.16 Their plan was to gather materials for an opera based on the islands history and folklore. Once there, Matheus plunged even more deeply into studying Haiti’s culture. White searched the island for folk music to use as.a basis for the opera’s score. He was already deeply familiar with spirituals and had published violin and piano compositions based on that musical form. While he found nothing like the spiritual in Haiti, White did discover what he described as a “strange, weird sort of rhythm running through the Voodoo rituals.” “It was,” he later recalled, “a new and different rhythm and I studied it until I had mastered it. . . . That rhythm is the basic rhythm in ‘Ouanga’ and it is authentic.”” After the study period in Haiti, Matheus returned to West Virginia and the college. He completed the opera’s libretto in 1929. White, with an extension of one of his fellowships and a study leave, went to Paris for two years to study operatic composition with Raoul Lapara and to finish work on the score of Ouanga. His training almost certainly included be- coming absorbed in the French school of opera by attending performances at the Paris opera. This influence, in fact, can be seen clearly in Ouanga. French opera nearly always contained fully staged dance scenes, very often ballet. White included dances in his opera, using types that were in- digenous to Haitian culture.’*

15See,for example, articles on “Harlem Renaissance”and “Negritude,”Encarta Africana (3rd ed., CD-ROM, 2000); African-American Almanac, eds. Jay F1 Pederson and Kenneth Estell, (3 vols., Detroit, Mich., 1994), Ill, 518-21; Patricia Flynn, The Harlem Renaissance: Black American Tradi- tions (New Haven, Conn., 2003); David Levering Lewis, Harlem Renaissance Reader (New York, 19941,73543; Eileen Southern, The Music ofBlack Americans (3rd ed., New York, 1997). 404- 65; and Carter Godwin Woodson and Charles H. Wesley, The Negro in Our History (12th ed., Washington, D. C., 1972), 456,542,56345, 708. 16Zora Neale Hurston, Marian Anderson, Katherine Dunham, Langston Hughes, and William Grant Still were among the many prominent African-American artists supported by Rosenwald grants. The Harmon Foundation supported such black artists as Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, and Nella Larsen. ”South Bend Tribune, June 1, 1949 “3outh Bend Tribune, October 17, 1948, April 20, June 10, 1949; Turner, Dictionary of Afro- American Performers, 384. 180 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

As White moved further into the score of the opera, his composi- tional plan that had been established with Matheus-to create an opera based on Haitian history and musical forms-became more far-ranging. White wanted to “produce an opera entirely for and about Negroes,” be- lieving that such a work had heretofore not been composed. “There is a native dramatic ability in the Negro and deep wells of music within him,” White said, and he expressed the belief that these qualities inherent in black music would make Ouanga a success.19White did not intend to produce an opera that could be performed and enjoyed only by black artists and audiences. He wanted, rather, to use the cultures of the African diaspora in the same way that white European composers had utilized their own cultural identities in creating the existing French, German, Ital- ian, and Russian schools of opera. Ouungu was completed in Pans early in 1932.20Under the sponsor- ship of the American Opera Society of Chicago, scenes from the opera were performed, in concert version, on November 13, 1932, at Chicago’s Three Arts Club. On this occasion, White won the organization’s coveted Bispham Medal. Established in 1921, the medal (named after baritone David Bispham) was awarded to an opera in English by an American composer. Previous medalists included Charles Wakefield, Victor Herbert, Deems Taylor, and Walter Damrosch.zl On June 18,1941, Ouungu was presented again in concert version by New York City’s New School of Social Research, and the performance was broadcast over a local radio station.22Then came the first fully staged productions on June 10 and 11,1949, at Central High School auditorium in South Bend, in performances by the Burleigh Music Association. Just

19SouthBend Tribune, June 9, 1949. ZoTurner,Dictionary of Afro-American Performers, 384. Z’Forthis performance MacHenry Boatright played the role of the emperor, and a large chorus sat at the back of the stage in concert style. Hansonia LaVerne Caldwell, “Black Idioms in Opera as Reflected in the Works of Six Afro-American Composers,” Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California, 1974, 87-88; Celia Elizabeth Davidson, “Operas by Afro-American Composers: A Critical Survey and Analysis of Selected Works,” Ph.D. diss., Catholic University of America, 1980,212-13; and New Grove Dictionary ofAmerican Music, eds. H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie (4 vols., London, 1986), 226. There was an unsuccessful movement to award the medal jointly to White and Matheus, but there was no precedent in AOSC history for recognizing both the composer and librettist of an opera. ZZTheauthor has been unable to locate a program of the New School’s performance. From extant literature one can surmise that this production was similar to the Chicago performance. The major male soloist was probably Lawrence Winters. See Who’s Who in Colored America, Burckel and Fleming eds., 358-59; Caldwell, “Black Idioms in Opera,” 87; and Eileen Southern, The Music ofBlack Americans (3d ed., New York, 1997), 417. OUANGA 181

Courtesy Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music how the opera came to this particular city and this group is still a matter for speculation. Association alumni, interviewed many years afterwards, could not recall any prior acquaintance between Josephine Curtis and Clarence White. It may be, however, that the two musicians already knew each other through one or more professional associations. The composer was instrumental in the founding of the National Association of Negro Musicians and served as its president from 1922 to 1924. During that 182 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

same period Curtis was active in the musical life of St. Louis, one of the cities which had a branch of the NANM. Curtis’s student days in Chicago may also have provided a contact. The Chicago University of Music, founded by Pauline James Lee, often featured leading black musicians as guest faculty, and White spent many summers teaching there.23 Even without personal associations between the composer and the group’s founder, in the context of 1940s American race relations White’s choice was understandable. There were no major opera companies to which a black composer could submit a new work and expect both serious review and a real chance at being included as part of the repertory. The sole exception at the time of Ouanga’s premiere was William Grant Still’s Troubled Island, produced by the New York City Opera in 1949, but only after years of laborious negotiation^.^^ Ouanga was set in Haiti, in 1804, during the reign of the emperor Dessalines. Key to the plot are his attempts to change the culture of his people into one similar to the French court of Napoleon. Christianity and the traditional religion of voodoo come into conflict, and the two philoso- phies vie for dominance on the island, eventually bringing the death of the emperor’s beloved, Defilee, and his own downfall.25 White had chosen the soloists for the major roles. The starring roles of the emperor and Defilee were played by native Haitian singers Fritz Vincent and Carmen Malibranche, but many of the other principal roles were sung by members of the Burleigh.26Curtis had prepared the chorus (members of the association) over a five-month period; Casaday had de- signed the costumes and sets and staged the production; and three choreog- raphers had created the dance numbers. The principal conductor of the performances was Zigmont George Gaska, a well-known conductor from the region; White conducted the overture and one of the opera’s two entr'acte^.^'

23EileenSouthern, Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians (Westport, Conn., 1962), 24142,398-99. ’+Tammy L. Kernodle, “Arias, Communists, and Conspiracies: The History of Still’s Troubled Island,” Musical Quarterly 83 (19991,487438. ’*SouthBend Tribune, April 20, June 10, 1949. 26Bothsingers were natives of Port-au-Prince;both lived and studied in New York City for several years. Malibranche also sang Defilee in the 1950 Philaldelphia production. Vincent went on to perform with the National Negro Opera Company. See South Bend Tribune, June 1,1949;Max de Schauensee, “City Premiere of Haitian Opera Given by Dra Mu Singers,” The [Philadelphia] Bulletin, October 28, 1950; Eric Ledell Smith, Blacks in Opera: An Encyclopedia of People and Companies (Jefferson,N.C., 1995), 187. 27Gaskawas the conductor and founder of five performing ensembles in northern Indiana: the OUANGA 183

Joseph Charles, the Haitian ambassador to the United States and the islands delegate to the United Nations, attended the second evening’s performance. Charles was also one of the patrons who made the South Bend premiere possible. Ticket and program sales would never have covered the necessary-costs-general section tickets were only one dollar each and programs were fifty cents. The Burleigh, however, assembled a group of supporters, including the Haitian ambassador, the University of Notre Dame, the Welber Foundation, the Indiana Cab Company, and a local car dealership. 28 South Bend Tribune reviewer Frank Schmidt wrote of the richness and intricacy of the opera. He felt that the work was an orchestral gem but was unkind to singers. The critic also pronounced, however, that both the orchestra and the singers had met the demands of the score. He concluded by declaring the performance a resounding success.29 Alumni of the Burleigh, interviewed in 1995, were still excited when they reminisced about “their premiere.” They talked about the vocally challenging writing in White’s score and the level of concentration re- quired to perform in a fully staged, full-scale production of a grand opera. Lorene Richardson added that this “was the first time that we performed an opera with full orchestra.” Alumni also recalled the stimulation of performing in the presence of the opera’s composer and libretti~t.~~ Principal conductor Gaska, also interviewed the same year, was still enthusiastic about the special place that the South Bend arts community, the Burleigh, and Josephine Curtis had carved out in the annals of music history:

Ouanga is an involved score with complex orchestration and intri- cate writing for the voice. Ouanga was challenging, but very per- sonally rewarding to conduct. Challenging, because beyond the formidable task of learning the opera, there was the emotional task

Elkhart Symphony, the Michiana Symphonette, the South Bend Mishawaka Junior Symphony, the Little Symphony of Mishawaka, and the Gaska String Quartet. His musical arrangements were widely published. On Gaska see South Bend Tribune, July 15, 16, 1996. For details of the performance see ibid., April 20, May 8, June 1,June 11, 1949. 28SouthBend Tribune, May 8,1949; Harry Thacker Burleigh Music Association, Program of Ouanga, in possession of John Charles Bryant. 29SouthBend Tribune, June 11, 1949. 3oAlumniInterview. 184 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

of conducting a world stage premiere. In such a situation there is no model to study, and no real counsel to call upon. . . . I was given an opportunity to make history.”

On October 27, 1950, Ouanga was performed again in a fully-staged version by the Dra Mu Opera Company at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Curtis and Gaska and their spouses attended the performan~e.~~ The opera would be performed three more times: once in a partially staged version at Xavier University in New Orleans in 1955; twice in concert version by the National Negro Opera Company, first at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House and again at Carnegie Hall in 1956.33 The Burleigh Music Association produced its last opera, Taylor’s Hiawatha, in 1959; the group’s last performance was probably a concert given in the fall of 1960. As one member later recalled, “Once the leading participants especially Mrs. Curtis, Mrs. Bryant, and Mr. Casaday, were no longer active, no new person stepped forward to carry on and the association ceased to exist.”34Matheus continued as a teacher and an author of stories, poems, and plays, and died in 1983. White conducted, arranged, and composed music; his Elegy for orchestra was a prize-winner in 1954 and was premiered by the New Orleans Philharmonic. He died in 1960. For one brief period the work of White, Matheus, Curtis, Casaday, and all the members of the Burleigh placed South Bend, Indiana, on the interna- tional opera scene. Perhaps more importantly for the long-term life of the city, the Burleigh Music Association provided many years of high-quality performance opportunities for black Hoosiers who would otherwise have been excluded by the barriers of racism and it offered just as many years of musical enjoyment to the citizens of South Bend.35

)‘Zigmont George Gaska, interview with author, South Bend, Indiana, September 23, 1995 ”Mae Gornik Gaska, telephone conversation with the author, January 5, 1996; Dra Mu Opera Company Papers (Free Library of Philadelphia). 33Programof Ouanga, Xavier Music League, 1955, Xavier University Music Department Archives (New Orleans, Louisiana); National Negro Opera Foundation, National Negro Opera Company, 1941-1959 (Washington, D.C., 1999); Programs of Ouanga, National Negro Opera Company, Mary Cardwell Dawson Papers, 1937-1984 (Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York). ’+SouthBend Tribune, April 4,1959, April 19,1992; Local History file, Burleigh Papers; Richardson letter to author. 35A movement to create opera performance opportunities for black Americans began in 1872 with the Colored Opera Company,based in Washington, D.C. The movement lives today through companies such as Opera Ebony, based in New York. See Wallace Cheatham, ed., Dialogues on Opera and the African American Experience (Lanham, Md., 1997), 75-97; John Gray, ed., Blacks in Classical Music (New York, 1998). 23743. OUANGA 185

World Premiere Cast and Stage Personnel of Ouanga

Soloists and Their Roles Stage Personnel Fritz Vincent (Jean Jacques Dessalin) Bethel Binkley (Costumes) Carmen Malebranch (Defilee) Tessie Hunter (Makeup) Ruth Reese (Mougali) Mark Amos (Scenery) Earl Thompson (Le Bossal) Lorene Richardson (Properties) Ollie Mae Grayson (Licite) Matthew Binkley (Business Manager) Lemmyon Amoureux (Michel) Charles Orgain (Dramatic Coach) George Toodle (Papaloi) . Georgia Ward Bryant (Accompanist) John Skinner (Pere Corneille) Paul Henney (Lights) Mildred Williams (Claine Huereus)

Conductors George Zigmont Gaska Clarence Cameron White

World Premiere Chorus of Ouanga

Peasants Soldiers Elizabeth Hesiben Ann Nell Luten Arthur Williams Ollie Mae Grayson Lorene Richardson James McDaniek Agnes Robinson Mary Smith George Mitchell Gloria Swanson Mable Robinson Harry Williams Alice Coldman Theresa Alridge Paul Elliott Mary Gee Henrietta Weatherspoon John Kelly Sylvia Floyd Roland Dickinson William Dungy Came Ulis Obry Chambers Lonnie Woods Mildred Williams William Landry Paul Stewart Willa Mae Johnson Mark Amos Carol Dickinson Alfred Lee Winters Grady Thompson Tessie Hunter Earl Thompson Alice Newman Oscar Robinson Gwenn Bucanon T. L. Robinson Anna Marie Anderson Matthew Brinkley Nannie Anderson George Toodle Zoie Smith Fred Bradley John Skinner