Before Harlem: Miss Agnes Cully of Worcester, Massachusetts

I am just fascinated by my maternal grandmother Agnes Cully Peters, who sewed for many notable entertainers, socialites, and business people in New York and other areas of the country.  She had gotten her start in Worcester, MA at a very young age.  

My mother told me that her mother Agnes' talent was likened to Mendelsohn, Van Gogh, and numerous others who were born with their talents.  Agnes was born with a talent for sewing.  When she was a little girl, she would find scraps of fabric and scissors, needles and thread, and she would fashion little doll clothes  She was not taught to do this or helped in any way.  Neither was she able to watch sewing being done.  Agnes just had the natural ability to sew, and when she went to cutting, she had no pattern, however, her scissors would fly with such preciseness of artistry.

Below is a photo of my grandmother's graduating class of 1917 at the Girls Trade School in Worcester, MA.

Agnes Mae Cully, Only African American in the front Row

My grandmother is someone I would like to emulate.  Not so much her talent, but her sense of purpose and passion for the things that she desired.  It is in my opinion that this little lady embraced who she was, and pursued her dreams and accomplished what she desired.  She said one day that she would hope to sew for Marian Anderson, and one day the opportunity appeared in a telegram from the singer herself.  I would have loved to have been in the room when she received that message, one of many, in the Fall of 1939.