Life
Emma Ophelia DeVore was born on August 12, 1922 in Edgefield, South Carolina. She was one of ten children born to John Walter DeVore, who was of German American and African American descent, and Mary Emma Strother, who was a Black Indian. Monsieur DeVore owned a road contracting business and her mother was an educator and musician. Her father mentored her in communicating well with people, as her mother stressed proper education, appearance, and etiquette.
DeVore attended segregated schools until she was nine, and then moved to Winston-Salem to live with her mother's brother, John. Two years later she moved to New York City to stay with her great-aunt Stella Carter. This prevented any future educational interruptions due to her father's travel schedule.
DeVore graduated from Hunter College High School and went on to New York University. There, she majored in mathematics and minored in languages.
In 1941, she married Harold Cater. He worked as a firefighter while she studied fashion, public relations, and advertising. Together, they had five children: Carol, Jimmy, Marie, Michael and Cheryl.
DeVore married Vernon Mitchell in 1968, who died in 1972.
In 1989, she was featured in Brian Lanker's "I Dream a World," a collection of portraits and biographies of black women who helped change America. In 2004, she was honored by the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Fashion Arts Xchange, Inc. for her contributions to fashion and entertainment. She is also the CEO and publisher of The Columbus Times Newspaper in Columbus, Georgia.
Read more about this topic: Ophelia Devore
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“The minutes wing’d their way wi’ pleasure:
Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O’er a’ the ills o’ life victorious!”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“Such is oftenest the young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind. The mass of men are still and always young in this respect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world “This was a man.””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)