Mary Jane Watkins
A young Black woman with bobbed hair, wearing a lace-trimmed blouse with a dark jacket
Mary Jane Watkins, from the 1924 yearbook of Howard University
Born(1902-09-27)September 27, 1902
Columbia, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedJanuary 11, 1977(1977-01-11) (aged 74)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Occupations
  • Dentist
  • actress
Military career
Allegiance United States
Service/branch United States Army
UnitWomen's Army Corps

Mary Jane Watkins (September 27, 1902 – January 11, 1977) was an American actress and dentist, and one of the first Black women to serve in the Women's Army Corps.

Early life and education

Watkins was born in Columbia, Tennessee, the daughter of John Watkins and Maggie Watkins.[1][2] As a young woman at Morgan College, she and writer Zora Neale Hurston were school friends;[3] Hurston recalled Watkins as "the most sex-appealing thing, with her lush figure and big eyes and soft skin".[4][5] After Morgan, Watkins attended Howard University, where she graduated from the School of Dentistry in 1924, the only woman in her class.[6] She also played basketball and tennis at Howard, and was founder and president of the Rho Psi Phi, the first Black medical sorority.[7][8]

Career

Watkins lived in Pittsburgh after dental school,[9] and in 1926 was secretary of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Howard University alumni association.[10] She coached a girls' basketball team; activist Dorothy Height was one of her players.[11][12] She was also a local tennis champion.[13][14]

Watkins moved to New York City in 1927;[7] she lived in Harlem[15] and was active in the YWCA,[16] the Business and Professional Women's Club,[17] and other organizations there.[18][19] In 1930, she and Zora Neale Hurston were among the guests at a reception for West African businessman Winfried Tete-Ansa, held by the Plainfield Negro History Club in New Jersey.[20]

She joined the Women's Army Corps in 1942, becoming one of the first Black women to serve in that corps.[21][22] In 1960, she spent a year practicing dentistry in Enugu, Nigeria.[23] She taught at the Guggenheim Clinic in New York in the 1960s, training international students in dentistry.[24] From 1964 to 1966, she was vice-president of the North Harlem Dental Society, and in 1965 she was president of the Association of Women Dentists of New York City.[25] She had a dental practice in New York until she retired in 1972.[1]

Films and stage

Watkins was also an actress as a young woman, appearing in the Oscar Micheaux silent film Deceit (1923), and the Bud Pollard sound film The Black King (1932).[26][27] She also appeared in a musical comedies, including Ol' Man Satan (1932) at the Forrest Theatre[28] and Ham's Daughter (1932) at the Lafayette Theatre.[29]

Personal life

Watkins was briefly rumored to be a love interest of aviator Hubert Julian.[30] She died in Detroit in 1977, aged 74 years, at the home she shared with her sister, Christina Watkins Bishop.[1][2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Dr. Mary Jane Watkins, a Dentist". The New York Times. January 15, 1977. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  2. 1 2 "In Memoriam". The Quarterly of the National Dental Association. 35: 42. April 1977 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ Li, Stephanie (January 16, 2020). Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in American History. ABC-CLIO. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-4408-6655-5.
  4. ↑ Hurston, Zora Neale (February 12, 2019). Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0-7352-5363-6.
  5. ↑ Plant, Deborah G. (1995). Every Tub Must Sit on Its Own Bottom: The Philosophy and Politics of Zora Neale Hurston. University of Illinois Press. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-0-252-02183-1.
  6. ↑ Howard University, The Bison (1924 yearbook).
  7. 1 2 "Dr. Watkins is Honored by Rho Si Phi". The Pittsburgh Courier. May 21, 1927. p. 7. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  8. ↑ "Rho Psi Phi Medical Sorority". California Eagle. November 5, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  9. ↑ "Miss Anderson Hostess". The Pittsburgh Courier. August 7, 1926. p. 7. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  10. ↑ "Dr. D. G. King Heads Local Chapter of Howard Alumni". The Pittsburgh Courier. July 3, 1926. p. 4. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  11. ↑ "Beauty to Clash With Beauty When Washington Lassies Meet Rankin Girls' Quintet on Floor". The Pittsburgh Courier. March 6, 1926. p. 13. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  12. ↑ Height, Dorothy I. (Dorothy Irene) (2003). Open wide the freedom gates : a memoir. Internet Archive. New York : PublicAffairs. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-58648-157-5.
  13. ↑ "Laura Junior Defeats Dr. Watkins in Singles". The Pittsburgh Courier. August 21, 1926. p. 14. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  14. ↑ "Tennis Tourney to be Held Here Frog Week". The Pittsburgh Courier. July 24, 1926. p. 14. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  15. ↑ "The Swanky Sunset-Marlbrooke Defies Depression in Harlem". The Pittsburgh Courier. March 26, 1932. p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  16. ↑ "Doris Madison is Hostess to Social Workers". The New York Age. June 15, 1935. p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  17. ↑ "Addresses Club". The Pittsburgh Courier. November 30, 1929. p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  18. ↑ "African Universal Church to Hold Meeting on Friday". The Miami Herald. November 5, 1930. p. 2. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  19. ↑ "Mother Zion Church". The New York Age. January 11, 1930. p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  20. ↑ "Foreign Banker, Visitor". The Courier-News. June 24, 1930. p. 1. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  21. ↑ "The WAACs". Daily News. October 16, 1942. p. 255. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  22. ↑ "Five New York Women Join WAACS". The New York Age. October 24, 1942. p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  23. ↑ Major, Gerri (September 14, 1961). "Society". Jet: 38.
  24. ↑ "Youthful Pittsburgh Dentist" Jet (August 19, 1965): 49.
  25. ↑ "Mary Jane Watkins, Retired Dentist". Detroit Free Press. January 14, 1977. p. 21. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  26. ↑ Sampson, Henry T. (1995). Blacks in black and white : a source book on Black films. Internet Archive. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow press. p. 355. ISBN 978-0-8108-2605-2.
  27. ↑ "Dr. Mary J. Watkins". The New York Age. July 9, 1932. p. 6. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  28. ↑ White, Lucien H. (October 29, 1932). "Realm of Music". The New York Age. p. 7. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  29. ↑ The Harlem Renaissance : a historical dictionary for the era. Internet Archive. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press. 1984. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-313-23232-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  30. ↑ Yates, Ted (August 29, 1941). "Lights! Action! Camera!". The Weekly Review. p. 8. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
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