Joseph and Mary Louise Ford papers

Joseph James Horace and Mary Louise Coleman Ford gained recognition in badminton as a husband and wife team. Joseph was coach and Mary Louise won city, state, and national championships as a singles player and team member for the Wabash Avenue branch of the Young Men's Christian Association in Chicago. Joseph was a native of Texas and a graduate of George Williams College in Chicago with a B.S. degree in physcial education. He had attended Straight University in New Orleans before entering the college. After graduation, he was employed as a recreation supervisor, a YMCA secretary, and director of United Service Organizations for the YMCA. He worked at USO Centers in Manhattan, Kansas, and Battle Creek, Michigan. The scrapbooks include letters, news clippings, programs, certificates, invitations, and numerous photographs. Photographs include celebrities such as Buck of Buck and Bubbles fame, Joe Louis, Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, Red Skelton, and Ethel Waters. The Lena Horne photograph is autographed and dated 1944. A member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Ford's membership certificate (1938) is included and signed by Albert W. Dent, who was Grand Basleus of the organization at the time. Also included are two reels of 16mm film of the Joe Louis versus Billy Conn fight for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship at the Polo Grounds in New York, 1941. Correspondents include Malvin Thompson, secretary to Eleanor Roosevelt; George E. Stock, Army and Navy Department of the National Council of YMCA Associations; and Marven Roseman.