Reflections on the 100th anniversary of her birth
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
On a glorious autumn day 43 years ago – Oct. 27, 1974 – the University of Maryland Eastern Shore paid tribute to the 20th century’s “First Lady of Song” by naming its performing arts center after Ella Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald spoke and performed during a 90-minute ceremony that attracted a capacity crowd to a 1,167-seat theater flanked by classrooms and rehearsal studios.
According to those who were there that warm Sunday afternoon, it was difficult to discern who enjoyed the moment more, the audience or the honoree.
“This is one of those days that will go down in history for me,” journalist Richard Culver quoted Fitzgerald as saying in a front-page article published in The Daily Times the following day.
A reflective Culver described himself as “a young reporter … eager to hold my own with other media there, including a seasoned veteran from the Baltimore Sun.”
“Reporters and photographers were angling to get the best shots and the best quotes for their stories,” he said. “Decades later what I remember was Ms. Fitzgerald as she stood to sing. Time seemed to pause and a public ceremony transformed into an afternoon of art.”
The newspaper article proclaimed Fitzgerald was the first living black performer to have a building named in her honor. She became the fourth woman to be so honored on the UMES campus.*
The $1.6 million performing arts center was already in use prior to the much-anticipated dedication that had the community abuzz. Fitzgerald, then 57, had reached iconic status as a multi-Grammy winning jazz singer mentioned in the same breath as contemporaries Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman.
The driving force behind Fitzgerald’s triumphant visit to Princess Anne was Chancellor Archie L. Buffkins, UMES’ top administrator and a champion of the performing arts whose first love was music.
Photos from that day show a beaming Buffkins at Fitzgerald’s side.
“I can remember how excited Dr. Buffkins seemed to be,” said Alverne Chesterfield, a retired UMES employee and 1977 alumnus. “You could see it was a great day for him.”
As chairman of the UMES Senate, Chesterfield offered welcome remarks on behalf of not only students but staff and faculty. The sophomore from the Virgin Islands was at the time thought to be the youngest person to be elected to such a leadership post on an American college campus.
“That whole year was something special for me,” he said. “I never thought … I would have that experience and get the opportunity to meet Ella Fitzgerald – let along speak at her dedication.”
Seated on stage between Chesterfield and Fitzgerald was Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel. Other speakers were student government president Alvin Mance, Blanche F. Purnell of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Dr. R. Lee Hornbake of the University of Maryland, Dr. B. Herbert Brown, a University of Maryland regent, and Omega Jones Frazier of UMES’ alumni association.
Frazier drew inspiration from band director Duke Ellington’s oft-quoted compliment about Fitzgerald when she, too, allowed that the honoree’s “talent is beyond category.”
