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RIP Elsie Washington
May. 28th, 2009 07:17 pmAmong various other achievements, Elsie B. Washington (1942-2009) is credited with being the first African American to write a romance novel with African American characters. She was also a friend of my mother's from childhood through college. They had grown apart in more recent years not through any dislike, but these things sometimes just happen.
Her brother called my parents today to say that she had passed away. It's a shame, I don't remember much about her except that she was a very vibrant woman and I was always glad to see her. I seem to recall my mother and I getting together with her a few years ago, I think when I was in grad school, and learning then that her health was poor, but I may be reconstructing something that didn't happen. I think it's a shame that my mother and her drifted out of touch, for my mother has few true friends these days.
If I am remembering my stories correctly, Mom and Elsie were fast friends throughout most of their childhoods as the two non-whites in the class. It's interesting to see how these experiences shaped them after both earned degrees in English from City College: Elsie becoming an editor and writer credited with being the "mother of the African-American romance", and my mother becoming a high school English teacher with a favorite class of Asian Literature and going to many Asian nations on a Fulbright and other such scholarships.
NY Times Obituary
Wikipedia page
I wonder who will have touched more lives in the end? I want to think my mother, out of loyalty, but in the end it's not a contest, and they both have made contributions in their own ways.
Her brother called my parents today to say that she had passed away. It's a shame, I don't remember much about her except that she was a very vibrant woman and I was always glad to see her. I seem to recall my mother and I getting together with her a few years ago, I think when I was in grad school, and learning then that her health was poor, but I may be reconstructing something that didn't happen. I think it's a shame that my mother and her drifted out of touch, for my mother has few true friends these days.
If I am remembering my stories correctly, Mom and Elsie were fast friends throughout most of their childhoods as the two non-whites in the class. It's interesting to see how these experiences shaped them after both earned degrees in English from City College: Elsie becoming an editor and writer credited with being the "mother of the African-American romance", and my mother becoming a high school English teacher with a favorite class of Asian Literature and going to many Asian nations on a Fulbright and other such scholarships.
NY Times Obituary
Wikipedia page
I wonder who will have touched more lives in the end? I want to think my mother, out of loyalty, but in the end it's not a contest, and they both have made contributions in their own ways.
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