Nadine robinson
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Maria Cole
American jazz singer (1922–2012)
Musical artist
Maria Cole[1] (néeHawkins; August 1, 1922 – July 10, 2012) was an American jazz singer and the wife of singer Nat King Cole; mother of the singer Natalie Cole.[2][3]
Early life
Cole was born in Boston and was the niece of Charlotte Hawkins Brown.[4][5] Her father Mingo Hawkins was a letter carrier. Her mother Carol died while giving birth to her sister.[6][7][8]
In 1943 she married Spurgeon Ellington, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black unit of the Army Air Corps in World War II. He died during a training flight.
On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), Maria married Nat King Cole. The Coles were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. They had five children: Natalie (1950–2015), who had a successful career as a singer; an adopted daughter, Carole (1944–2009, the daughter of Maria's sister), who died of lung cancer at the age of 64; an adopted son, Nat Kelly Cole (1959–1995), who died
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Nat King Cole's widow, Maria, dies at 89
Maria Cole, widow of Nat King Cole and mother to singer Natalie Cole, has died in Florida aged 89.
A family spokesperson said she died at a Boca Raton hospice after suffering from cancer.
Before and after marrying Nat in 1948, Maria Cole had her own singing career, performing with greats such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
After her husband died in 1965, also from cancer, she created the Cole Cancer Foundation.
Born in Boston in 1922, Maria moved to North Carolina as child after her mother died. She later moved to New York to pursue a music career.
Duke Ellington heard recordings of her singing and hired her as a vocalist with his orchestra.
She stayed with him until 1946 when she went solo at the city's Club Zanzibar as an opening act for the Mills Brothers.
It was there she met her future husband, and she continued to travel and perform with Nat throughout the 1950s.
Her children, Natalie, Timolin and Casey Cole, said in a joint statement: "Our mum was in a class all by herself.
"She epitomised cla
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Maria Hawkins Cole (August 1, 1922 – July 10, 2012) was the widow of singer Nat King Cole and mother of singer Natalie Cole. She was also a jazz singer who worked most notably with Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
She soon moved to New York to pursue a music career with jazz great Benny Carter's band. In 1943, she married Spurgeon Ellington, a Tuskegee Airmen flyer during World War II. He was killed in Georgia two years later during a routine post-war training flight.
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