Delany Sister Dies At 109
Sarah "Sadie" Delany, a woman whose life and whose writing presented a unique view of America in the 20th century, has died at the age of 109.
With her sister, Bessie, and journalist Amy Hill Hearth, she wrote the book Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. The book, published in 1993, was later adapted to the Broadway stage. Bessie died in 1995 at the age of 104.
Camille Cosby, wife of Bill Cosby, said the best way to honor the Delany sisters is to "honor the memory of what they were." Mrs. Cosby is producing a made-for-television movie about the sisters, to be broadcast in April on CBS. Mrs. Cosby also was a producer of the Broadway play.
Delany died in her sleep Monday at the suburban New York City home she had shared with her sister, said her nephew, Harry Delany.
The two spry and witty women were celebrated for the gumption and humor that sustained them during the early days of the century in their native North Carolina, to their years in Harlem and beyond.
Having Our Say includes matter-of-fact references to the degradation they witnessed: the post-slavery years, segregation laws, and violent racism. Bessie was nearly lynched once as a young woman after a run-in with a white at a railroad station.
There were triumphs too: their impressive family saga, their pride in the 1960s civil rights movement, and their success in the world of work in an age when most women stayed home.
"I never let prejudice stop me from what I wanted to do in this life," Sadie once said.
The sisters, who described themselves as "best friends from Day One," and their eight brothers and sisters grew up on the campus of St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, N.C.
Their father, freed from slavery as a child, became a vice principal of the school and America's first elected black Episcopal bishop. Their mother helped run the school while instilling self-discipline, compassion and confidence in her children, what Bessie once called "a lot of love and good, sound, honest teaching." All 10 went on to attend college.
In their writing and in person, the sisters' contrasting personalities were plain: Bessie the sharp-tongued spitfire, Sadie the mild-mannered one.
The two migrated to New York in their 20s and got degrees from Columbia University. Along the way, they met intellectuals Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, entertainers Cab Calloway and Lena Horne and actor Paul Robeson, and thrived in white society. Both had successful careers: Sadie as a high school teacher, Bessie as a dentist.
Sadie became the first black domestic-science teacher in New York City public schools, and also ran a candy business for a time. Bessie opened a dental office in Harlem. Neither ever married.
"When people ask me how we've lived past 100, I say, 'Honey, we never married; we never had husbands to worry us to death'," Bessie said.
Advised Saie: "Don't get married just because he looks pretty. He's got to have good genes, and have some sense."
Hearth, more than 65 years their junior, first interviewed them for a newspaper story and persuaded them that their story merited a book. The three followed up with The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom in 1994.
Sadie Delany's last book, On My Own at 107: Reflections on a Life Without Bessie, appeared in 1997. She is survived by 14 nieces and nephews.