Maria Cole, widow of music legend Nat King Cole, passed away Tuesday of cancer at the age of 89.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Maria met Nat while she was singing as the opening act for the Mills Brothers in New York’s Club Zanzibar. The couple married in 1948. That same year they made headlines after sparking a homeowners protest from white residents of the affluent Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles where they chose to purchase their first home.
Pictured above is a photo of Nat and Maria Cole’s two story brick Tudor style house that was the cause of contention. This photo is just one of the many items on the Cole family that can be found amongst the photos, scrapbooks, periodicals and newspapers in the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum collection.
After Nat Cole passed away in 1965 of lung cancer, Maria, who’d previously sang with Bennie Carter, Count basie and Duke Ellington returned to her singing career and even began hosting a live afternoon conversation-variety show with Stan Bohrman on KHJ-TV (Channel 9) in Los Angeles for two years (headshot above).
For more information on Maria, Nat Cole and their family make an inquiry with the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum today!
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