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Mable <I>Lewis</I> Imes

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Mable Lewis Imes

Birth
New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, USA
Death
1 Aug 1935 (aged 75)
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA
Burial
Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA GPS-Latitude: 36.1464005, Longitude: -86.7693176
Plot
Section 30, Fisk University Lot
Memorial ID
View Source
Note date discrepancies:
Headstone dates differ from those shown on her Ohio death certificate which lists her death 01 Aug 1935 at the age of 75y 2m 8d. The informant was Mrs Florence Thompson.
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An original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Mabel was born into slavery, but raised in the North by a wealthy French family. At the age of ten, she ran away and was taken in by another white family in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She auditioned with the Jubilee Singers in the summer of 1872 in Acton, Mass. Touring with the group was her first exposure to Southern black culture.

Mabel married Martin Imes on April 22,1885, in Cleveland, Ohio, where she was active in the community and formed her own choir. She died in 1935 and was buried in Nashville's City Cemetery.

Still performing, Fisk's Jubilee Singers annually mark the anniversary of their formation with a "Jubilee Day" celebration. During this event, friends and alumni make an annual pilgrimage to City Cemetery and Greenwood Cemetery to visit the graves and honor the memories of Mabel and three other original Jubilee Singers buried in Nashville: Ella Sheppard Moore, Georgia Gordon Taylor and Minnie Tate Hall.
Note date discrepancies:
Headstone dates differ from those shown on her Ohio death certificate which lists her death 01 Aug 1935 at the age of 75y 2m 8d. The informant was Mrs Florence Thompson.
------------

An original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Mabel was born into slavery, but raised in the North by a wealthy French family. At the age of ten, she ran away and was taken in by another white family in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She auditioned with the Jubilee Singers in the summer of 1872 in Acton, Mass. Touring with the group was her first exposure to Southern black culture.

Mabel married Martin Imes on April 22,1885, in Cleveland, Ohio, where she was active in the community and formed her own choir. She died in 1935 and was buried in Nashville's City Cemetery.

Still performing, Fisk's Jubilee Singers annually mark the anniversary of their formation with a "Jubilee Day" celebration. During this event, friends and alumni make an annual pilgrimage to City Cemetery and Greenwood Cemetery to visit the graves and honor the memories of Mabel and three other original Jubilee Singers buried in Nashville: Ella Sheppard Moore, Georgia Gordon Taylor and Minnie Tate Hall.

Gravesite Details

Spelling discrepancy: her first name is carved as "Mable" on her gravestone, but recorded as "Mabel" in most documents.



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