Cleota J. Collins (September 24, 1893 — July 7, 1976) was an American

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

singer and

music educator Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do original ...

. She was one of the founding members of the

National Association of Negro Musicians The National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. is one of the oldest organizations in the United States dedicated to the preservation, encouragement, and advocacy of all genres of the music of African-Americans. NANM had its beginning on May 3, ...

in 1919.

Early life

Cleota Josephine Collins was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, the daughter of Ira A. Collins and Josie Collins. Her father was a clergyman. Cleota Collins studied music at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, and abroad in France and Italy, as the student of

Emma Azalia Hackley Emma Azalia Hackley, also known as E. Azalia Hackley and Azalia Smith Hackley (1867–1922), was a concert soprano, newspaper editor, teacher, and political activist. An African American, she promoted racial pride through her support and promotio ...

,Darryl Glenn Nettles
''African American Concert Singers Before 1950''
(McFarland 2003): 50-51. with further studies in New York."A Singer"
''The Crisis'' (April 1919): 287.

Career

Cleota Collins "toured extensively".Eileen Southern
''The Music of Black Americans: A History''
(W. W. Norton 1997): 282-283, 312. In 1924 she gave educational recitals at schools in Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. She toured southern schools again in 1936 and in 1938. She taught voice and piano at Florida Baptist Academy, Sam Houston College,

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

, and

Virginia State College Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of high ...

in Petersburg, among other posts. She was one of the founding members of the National Association of Negro Musicians in 1919. She operated the Lacy School of Music and was a church music director in Cleveland in the 1930s. In 1932, sculptor

Henry Bannarn Henry Wilmer "Mike" Bannarn (July 17, 1910 – September 20, 1965) was an African-American artist, best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance period. He is known for his work in sculpture and as a character artist in the various paint m ...

created a portrait bust of Cleota Collins; it was his earliest known work.

Personal life

Cleota Collins married George Corinth Lacy, a lawyer, in 1917. She married William Johnson Trent Sr., the president of

Livingstone College Livingstone College is a private, historically black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Livingstone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Sout ...

, as his fourth wife, in 1953. She may have married a third time, as her grave marker is for "Cleota Collins Moore." She died in 1976, aged 83 years, in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

. Her gravesite is in

Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery is a cemetery in Los Angeles at 1831 West Washington Boulevard in the Pico-Union district, southwest of Downtown. It was founded as Rosedale Cemetery in 1884, when Los Angeles had a population of approximately 28,000, ...

.Funeral Announcements
''Los Angeles Times'' (July 9, 1976): 46. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

References

External links

Cleota Collins Moore's gravesite
on Find a Grave.
A 1921 photograph
of Nora Douglas Holt, Cleota Collins Lacey, Portia Evans, Clarissa Hardy, Estelle E. Pinkney, Camille L. Nickerson and Gussie Rue Harris, Beinecke Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Cleota 1893 births 1976 deaths Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Virginia State University faculty Tuskegee University faculty American sopranos 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers American women academics