Maggie Hathaway, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Maggie Hathaway

American activist, blues singer, actor, sports writer and golfer

Date of Birth: 01-Jul-1911

Place of Birth: Campti, Louisiana, United States

Date of Death: 24-Sep-2001

Profession: actor, singer, sportswriter, recording artist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


Show Famous Birthdays Today, United States

👉 Worldwide Celebrity Birthdays Today

About Maggie Hathaway

  • Maggie Mae Hathaway (July 1, 1911 – September 24, 2001) was an American activist, blues singer, actor, sports writer and golfer.
  • A native of Campti, Louisiana, Hathaway traveled to Los Angeles in 1931 in hopes of playing piano in one of the clubs on Central Avenue, also known as "Black Broadway".
  • Instead, she began her career in the area working as an extra in Hollywood films, usually as an "Egyptian" or an "exotic." After auditioning for Cabin in the Sky, Hathaway was hired as a body double for Lena Horne throughout much of the film; she later worked as Horne's stand-in in Stormy Weather.
  • However, her Hollywood career ended when she refused to play an extra in a biopic about Woodrow Wilson which required her to wear a bandanna and sit on a bale of cotton.
  • She then returned to singing in cabaret in Los Angeles clubs, recording several songs including “Bayou Baby Blues,” “School Girl Blues,” “A Falling Star” and “When Gabriel Blows His Horn” with The Robins and “Here Goes a Fool” as a solo artist.
  • During the civil rights movement, Hathaway would become a major activist in the Los Angeles-Hollywood region.
  • After she took up golf as a pastime after winning a bet against Joe Louis in 1955, she began agitating against local golf courses which restricted black patrons from usage; by 1958, she began writing a golf column in the California Eagle about black professional players, and by 1963 she launched Minority Associated Golfers to support young black golfers.
  • Her agitation spread to broader issues, and in 1962, Hathaway became the founding president of the newly-chartered Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch of the NAACP.
  • In 1967, she joined with Sammy Davis, Jr.
  • and Willis Edwards in holding the first NAACP Image Awards.
  • She was married to at least four husbands, including King Coleman (from 1979 to 1984).
  • The Jack Thompson Golf Course in Los Angeles was renamed the Maggie Hathaway Golf Course in 1997.

Read more at Wikipedia

See Also