Mary Jane Watkins (dentist)

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.

This article is about the African-American dentist. For the African-American pianist, see Mary Watkins. For the British professor of nursing, see Mary Watkins, Baroness Watkins of Tavistock.

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

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. "Dr. Mary Jane Watkins, a Dentist". The New York Times. January 15, 1977. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  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. "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
  8. "Rho Psi Phi Medical Sorority". California Eagle. November 5, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  9. "Miss Anderson Hostess". The Pittsburgh Courier. August 7, 1926. p. 7. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  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
  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
  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
  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
  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
  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
  17. "Addresses Club". The Pittsburgh Courier. November 30, 1929. p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  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
  19. "Mother Zion Church". The New York Age. January 11, 1930. p. 5. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  20. "Foreign Banker, Visitor". The Courier-News. June 24, 1930. p. 1. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  21. "The WAACs". Daily News. October 16, 1942. p. 255. Retrieved February 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  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
  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
  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
  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
  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
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