Welcome back Everyone! Before I end the suspense and reveal the information about Isac Gray Hockenhull that I promised everyone in my last article,"I WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT THE "RECALL EFFORTS" OF MAYOR OLIVER ELLIS HAVE OFFICIALLY BEGUN!!! With that said, let me share the special information about Isac Gray Hockenhull as well as more information about his enterprising mother, MaI would like to announce that dam M.E.D. Hockenhull! I was very surprised to learn that Isac ended up meeting & marrying a nice young Negro lady that has been featured throughout the United States. While she is known mainly for her stunning voice and her fantastic singing ability, this young lady also shined when she would assist Isac and his mother in their Hair Care and Beauty Business. Additionally, her fame and her name is known all over the world! Who was this young Negro Lady, the one who was known simply as,"Isac Hockenhull 's wife, from 1936 to 1941, while they were married. "WELL, MAYBE IF I MENTION THAT SHE HAD THE HONOR OF SINGING TO THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING MILLIONS OF HER FANS & ADMIRERS AT THE 1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON, HER NAME WILL ROLL OFF YOUR TONGUES LIKE THAT!" If your answer was "MAHALIA JACKSON, THE QUEEN OF GOSPEL," you are absolutely correct! Ok, now let's get back to Isac's mother, "Madam M.E.D. Hockenhull." Soon after marrying her second husband, Robert Hockenhull, the couple opened, owned, and operated the very first Hotel for Colored People, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. However, it seems that once the Hotel was running smoothly, Madam M.E.D. Hockenhull opened her own Beauty Store called,"Ladies Choice Millinery Store and Beauty Parlor." Ladies, imagine being a Colored Woman around 1910, and walking into a store where there was a plethora of products, ranging from hats and handmade dresses to hair and beauty products of all sorts! By the way, in addition to all the other products that she offered, she actually manufactured and offered her own hair care line as well. Furthermore, like her contemporaries, Madam C.J.Walker and Annie Turnbo Malone, she founded a Beauty School, where she taught her Hair and Beauty System to Negro girls & women. In 1913, word about Madam M.E.D. Hockenhull 's business and the success that she was having in Pine Bluff got to the Famed Educator, Booker T. Washington.In 1914, a little over a year before his death in 1915, he sent a letter to her requesting her to be one of the guest speakers at The 15th Annual Convention of The National Negro Business League that was going to be held in Muskegon Oklahoma.Needless to say, she glady accepted Booker T. Washington's invitation, "AND IN 1914 MADAM M.E.D. HOCKENHULL JOINED MADAM C.J.WALKER, AS BEING TWO OF THE FIRST NEGRO WOMEN TO EVER SPEAK AT A NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE CONVENTION!" Interestingly, not only did Madam M.E.D. Hockenhull give her speech at the convention, she also put on a fashion clinic, displaying several of the latest styles of her handmade dresses as well as her other products that she manufactured for the convention. By the time the convention ended, everyone at the convention was raving about Madam M.E.D. Hockenhull and her fabulous dresses! For unknown reasons, in the early 1920s, she divorced Robert Hockenhull and arranged for her and Isaac to move to Chicago, Illinois, where with the assistance of Isaac, and later, Mahalia Jackson Hockenhull, she continued making her fine products, and teaching her Hair & Beauty System! Sadly, on December 18, 1937, after teaching thousands of Negro Women her Hair & Beauty System, Madam M.E.D. Hockenhull departed this world, but while she was here she blazed a trail for other Black Female Beauticians to follo
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