Biographical Note
Ida Cullen Cooper, widow of Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on January 3, 1903, to Charles and Susie Anthony Roberson. After graduating from Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1921, Ida married Robert Lee Parker with whom she had a child, Norma Parker, born in 1922. Fifteen years later, she moved to New York where she was employed as a secretary to the Reverend F.A. Cullen at Salem Methodist Church until 1940. She divorced from Robert Lee Parker in August 1940, and remarried to Countee Cullen on September 27, 1940.
Cullen died six years after their union on January 9, 1946. In 1950, Ida established the Countee Cullen Foundation and worked to promote the legacy of her deceased husband. Her work resulted in the 136th Street Branch Library in Harlem being renamed for Countee Cullen in 1959, and P.S. 194 in New York being similarly renamed in 1964.
On August 5, 1951, Ida married a third time to Robert Cooper. Their marriage lasted until his death on April 2, 1966. In the following decade, Countee Cullen Elementary School was dedicated in Chicago, Illinois, in 1972 and the First Annual Countee Cullen Memorial Celebration was held on May 30, 1981, in New York. Ida Cullen Cooper died on May 3, 1986, in New York.
Citation:
Author: Alana Teller
Citation:
Ida Cullen Cooper Papers
Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:
Collection — Container: Audiotapes
Identifier: 102
Scope and Contents
The Ida Cullen Cooper papers date from 1928 to 1986 and consist mainly of materials that reflect Cooper's marriage to poet Countee Cullen late in his life and Cooper's efforts to promote his legacy following the poet's death. A smaller amount of material reflects Cooper's own personal life, including items related to her interest in African American and African art. This collection contains correspondence, photographs, new clippings, invitations and programs, publications, financial records,...
Dates:
Created: 1928-1986; Other: Date acquired: 01/01/1971
Collection — Container: Drawing of Cullen
Identifier: 111
Scope and Contents
The papers of poet and playwright Countee Cullen document his personal and professional lives, as well as his relations with leading writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance era. Among the papers, which measure 11.9 linear feet, are correspondence; accounts, records, documents, legal papers, and certificates; a fragmentary diary (1928); teaching plan books and other teaching records; writings, including, articles, a book review, letters to editors, juvenile novels, plays, poems, a...
Dates:
Created: 1900-1947; Other: Date acquired: 01/01/1970
