Elizabeth Mary Dodson Program

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2022 @ 2:00PM VIEWING: 12:30 – 2:00PM ST. PAUL BAPTIST CHURCH

249 West 132nd Street, New York, New York 10027 Reverend Dr. V. Duwayne Battle, Pastor - Officiating Reverend Patricia A. Reeberg, Eulogist Mr. Howard Robbins, Musician Ms. Brandie Inez Sutton, Soloist Processional .......................................................................................................................................Clergy Selection .......................................................................“Oh, What a Beautiful City”- (Negro spiritual) Ms. Brandie Inez Sutton Scripture Readings .............Ecclesiastes 1:4-5, Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2 & Proverbs 31:25-26, 29-31 Reverend Sharon Reese, Associate Minister Invocation ..................................................................Reverend Dr. Linda Spears, Associate Minister Congregational Hymn ............................................................................................ “Blessed Assurance” Tributes ........ Laverne Gaither - Life-long friend and member of the Thomas Music Study Club Celestine Davis - President, St. Paul Baptist Church Missionary Ministry Darlene Cheeks - Director, St. Paul Baptist Church Music Ministry Congregational Hymn ............................ “I Come to the Garden Alone” - (C. Alstine Miles, 1913) Obituary.................................................................................................................. Eustace G. Thompson Music Selection.................................................................................................“In the Still of the Night” (a secular favorite of the late Elizabeth Mary Dodson) Ms. Brandie Inez Sutton Eulogy......................... Reverend Patricia A. Reeberg – Pastor, Rejoice Ministries, New York, NY Music Selection.......................................................................................... “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” Ms. Brandie Inez Sutton Benediction............................................................................................... Reverend Patricia A. Reeberg Recessional Hymn ................................................................................“Jerusalem” (Instrumental only) Dissolution: Woodlawn Crematory Bronx, New York Monday, June 13, 2022

ELIZABETH MARY DODSON was born May 7, 1929, in New York City, at the Sloan Hospital for Women at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She was the middle child and only daughter of Amy Elizabeth Daughtrey Dodson Sledge and Hayward Roosevelt Dodson, Sr., little sister to her elder brother Hayward Roosevelt Dodson II, and big sister to Charles “Charlie” Dodson, who died of rheumatic fever before the age of four.

Elizabeth—or “Vicky” or “Sister”, as her friends and family often called her—was born at a rather economically turbulent time, as it would be just months before the Stock Market crashed in October of that year. And so, Elizabeth’s parents brought her home to their tenement apartment, which she would share with her older brother, Hayward Roosevelt Dodson II, at East 104th Street, in Manhattan. But the family would not stay there long, for just a few months later, the land on which their dwelling stood would be “donated” by the city for the building of the Museum of the City of New York. Plans for the Museum had been underway since 1928.

The family found a more permanent home in Harlem, at 2773 Eighth Avenue. It was this Harlem neighborhood, the one in the valley that Sugar Hill overlooked, that helped form the woman that Elizabeth would become. For whereas Sugar Hill was the place for the Black and wealthy—and those who strived to be wealthy by association—the valley was where the majority of African Americans lived. And this was where she attended Public School 90 (which still stands, on 147th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues) and Harriet Beecher Stowe Junior High School, on 136th Street. It was in this valley that at St. Paul Baptist Church Elizabeth worshipped her Lord and savior and which nourished her greatest talent: Singing. She penned in her June 1944 graduation memory book from the Harriet Beecher Stowe school, on page titled “My Favorites” her favorite author: Alcott; favorite book: Little Women; favorite song: Evil Gal Blues; favorite hero: Joe Louis Barrow. But the most telling favorite was her written choice of profession: Singing.

Elizabeth lived to sing. And in this, the church served as a foundation, particularly through the late Joseph A. Thomas, who attended the same St. Paul Baptist Church and whose wife, the late Blanch K. Thomas, was a Juilliard graduate who shared her love of music with her husband and the larger black Harlem community through the National Association of Negro Musicians and her own associated Thomas Music Study Club, which Elizabeth joined as a youngster. So, it was no surprise that Elizabeth around 2019 recollected not just singing in the church, both as part of a choir and as a soloist, in fact giving many concerts there, but her being groomed in the many aspects of that art. Part of that art was learning how to sing Negro spirituals, using the voice as its own distinctly unique instrument. In particular, she recalled that a woman from a nearby church taught her how to “whoop”, to use her voice as an expression of the exhilaration often expressed in the Negro spiritual.

Elizabeth’s voice was natural but also well-trained. She began her formal voice training as a contralto under the late Dr. James Morrison, who ran a music studio on 125th Street, in Harlem. Of her voice, the black-owned newspaper New York Age Defender in its Saturday, September 24, 1955, edition, reported that she possessed “a superb voice of deep rich quality” and that she had “a most interesting background, having appeared in recital Town

Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Carl Fischer Concert Hall” and that “she is also one of the winners of the Negro Opera Guild contestants.”

Ever the consummate performer, over the ensuing decades, Elizabeth evolved from a powerful contralto into a mezzo soprano with the signature skills of a coloratura while studying under the late Kelly Wyatt and the late Winifred Steed Watson, treating arias, secular songs and Negro spirituals with equal ease and care, and meticulously honing the lilting vocal quality in the music she presented to her audiences. Her joy was sharing her talent, performing in concert halls, in schools, at events sponsored by various civic organizations, and, of course, at her beloved St. Paul Baptist Church, where for over seven decades she regaled her church family with world-class performances both as a concert soloist and as a member of the church’s senior choir. And Elizabeth loved singing with and for others. Extended family member Karlyn Jackson, had this to say: “Your mother [Elizabeth] and mine [the late gospel singer Frances Jackson] would often call on each other to render their musical gifts. Each one, when singing gospel, told the same story, but each had a unique interpretation, a unique voice. The blending of their talents was a blessing.” ~ Karlyn Jackson; Friday, May 27, 2022, telephone conversation with Sonia Fields Obalanlege.

Elizabeth had many close, life-long friends. Recently, Sylvia Benjamin, another long-time extended family member, remarked, “I will really miss her. She had a way of making you feel good. She’s gone on to glory, and I know she’s going to join that choir. Oh, what a choir they will have.” ~ Sylvia Benjamin; speaking of the late Elizabeth Dodson; May 27, 2022, in conversation with Sonia Fields Obalanlege.

Elizabeth was quite the social butterfly. She loved being around people. Her granddaughter, Adelola Dow, Esq., recently quipped “there doesn’t seem to be a club that Grandma didn’t want to join.” She was a long-time active member of the Lily of the Valley Club at St. Paul Baptist Church; the Bronx Chapter of the National Association of Negro Business Women; the Washington Heights Chorale Ensemble; the Thomas Music Study Club, an affiliate of the National Association of Negro Musicians, where she served as 2nd Vice President, while mingling with the likes of the late jazz artist Carline Ray Russell and the late historian and African-American arts promoter George W. Glover and; The Tremont Singers of Tremont Community Senior Citizen Center, which specialized in jubilee songs and spirituals--and featured on TV Channel 31 and WYNC-TV, with funding by such entities as Anheuser-Busch; and the Emmanuel Pieterson Historical Society. And, not surprisingly, she was a regular contributor to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and an avid concert attendee.

Aside from music, Elizabeth loved to travel. And whether it was by bus, or plane, or train or cruise, travel she did: To Brazil; to the Bahamas, to Jamaica, to Canada and, Stateside, to Missouri; to the Pennsylvania Amish Country; to Durham, North Carolina; to Hawaii; to New Orleans, Louisiana; to Virginia; to Florida. She was always going somewhere. Totally within character, she belonged to several travel groups, one of which was the International Travelers Touring Club and World Culture Study Association.

But while she loved the finer aspects of life, she maintained an earthy quality—which would likely explain why her favorite song back in 1944 was “Evil Gal Blues”, a song composed by none other than the late Lionel Hampton and sung by the inimitable Dinah Washington.

Elizabeth was as comfortable at the beach or the party dance floor or the boat ride as she was at the concert hall. She could listen to and enjoy with equal appreciation the music of Rufus Thomas or Betty Carter or Cab Calloway or The Mighty Sparrow or the antics of Jackie “Moms” Mabley or Pigmeat Markham.

Elizabeth’s work life began at Sunshine Biscuit Company, where she worked for fifteen years, on the site of the current LaGuardia Community College. Elizabeth knew her family loved cookies, so she made sure to bring home boxes of the delightful sweets for the Christmas and Easter holidays. However, Sunshine was planning to move to New Jersey. So, ever the optimist, she began preparing for a new beginning—one with the United States Post Office.

And so it was during 1963 through 1964 that Elizabeth studied for and passed the Postal Service Examination. She was assigned to the landmark Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York, site. Elizabeth had a strong work ethic. She worked the night shift for many years to build the seniority which would enable her to demand a day shift. And, as she had done at Sunshine Biscuit Company, Elizabeth made even more friends, with whom she remained close even after retiring in 1991. With her large assemblage of friends (to Elizabeth, no one was a mere acquaintance), there was no event, be it a bus ride, a boat ride, or a concert, to which Elizabeth offered an invitation that she had issues securing patrons.

But, in the end, after God, familial love and affinity was her enduring cornerstone. And Elizabeth was born into a family short on money but wealthy in love. She had the unflagging love of her devoted elder brother, Hayward; the unconditional love of her mother, Amy Elizabeth; the adoring love of her aunts and uncles; the sisterly and brotherly love of her very numerous cousins; and the spiritual love of her St. Paul Baptist Church family which functioned like a super spiritual community action committee. This love she imparted to her two children, as she exposed them to the love of family, church, culture, and God. Elizabeth’s love for her children exceeded any other ambition she might have had, for when one of her children asked her why she did not pursue singing on the national and international stage, especially since this child knew that Elizabeth’s parents would have gladly stepped in as surrogates, her answer was that she simply did not want to be away from her children.

And the explanation was as calm as it was definitive: She was a mother and she wanted to be actively involved in her children’s lives. And so it was that at her death in the afternoon on Monday, 23, 2022, she was surrounded by the offspring she loved and for whom she had made any and all necessary maternal sacrifices: her daughter, Sonia Fields Obalanlege; her son, Michel Dodson; her granddaughter, Adelola Sheralynn Dow., Esq.; and her greatgranddaughter, Leila Olufemi Dow, with Leila singing and praying for her great-grandmother as she departed this world.

Aside from the foregoing persons, she is survived by her grandson-in-law, Michael Elijah Dow, Jr.; her great-grandson, Michael Adeyemi Dow III; her many beloved cousins; and her numerous extended family and friends.

Professional Services Entrusted to: LEVY & DELANY FUNERAL HOME 1879 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10031 Jocelyn Whiting, Funeral Director/Manager Thomas J. Henderson, Asst. Director Phone: (212) 283-1195 Email: jocelynwhiting@aol.com Program Design & Printing Entrusted to: MLD COMMUNICATIONS Reverend J-Anthony & Madelin Dargan 62 Maple Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042 Phone: 973-783-6198 Email: mldcomm@aol.com

I watched you as you fell asleep With tears that filled your eyes I watched you as the sun came up And you began to rise I saw the tears return again And whispered in your ear I tried to tell you I’m alright And tell you I’m still here I live on beyond the veil That you cannot see past Death doesn’t really end a life Our souls were made to last Souls live on, as does our love Though parting brings much sorrow We never know the time we have No promise of tomorrow So I watch over you each day And try to ease your pain And try to reassure you that You will see me again I’m sorry that you feel the ache Of life without me there I wish that I could take your pain And you from heartache spare To me it’s just a blink of time Til we will be together The next time that you take my hand We can hold on forever

In Appreciation

The family of Elizabeth Mary Dodson would like to extend their heartfelt thanks and appreciation for all acts of kindness and support shown to them during their time of bereavement.