24 | JANUARY 28 - FEBRUARY 3, 2022 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
Cully Continued from Page 23
1700s. And, then, my two-times great-grandmother, Hannah, she had been born enslaved. From my research, I tend to believe, because she was a very fair-skinned woman, that she was the child of the slave owner,” Moore said. “The family was very interesting. The family was very active in the political scene in Worcester, Massachusetts, as far as building the Black community in Worcester, Massachusetts.” One of 10 surviving children, Zara was born Jan. 26, 1892, in Worcester. “They all played instruments. They all could play the piano. They all played an extra instrument or sang or performed or spoke poetry,” Moore said. “All of them were very talented and it carried on, even into the next generation.” Zara’s family lived in homes on John and Bowdoin streets in the Highland Street area, part of the “clustered” community of African Americans on Worcester’s West Side. “Ambrose was a very fair-skinned man. He could pass for white,” Moore said. “They moved around a lot. He would go in and rent the house that the family was going to live in. And, so the reason why that they moved a lot is when they would come out of the home, here trailing behind him would be all these diff erent skin-toned children, which would be from the lightest to the darkest. And, from what I heard, Nora (Ambrose’s wife and Zara’s mother) was very dark-skinned … We even had an uncle (William S. Gilliam) that actually passed as white and became the director of one of the Boy’s Clubs in Worcester. And they have his picture when you walk in.” (NOTE: In July 17, 1917, Gilliam enlisted in the Worcester Light Infantry, Co. C, 2nd Mass. Infantry at the Camp Barrett, Green Hill, Worcester. By the time his tour of duty was done overseas, Gilliam, who would go on to become the superintendent of the Ionic Avenue Boys Club, was promoted to lieutenant. William Gilliam and Zara Cully’s mother were fi rst cousins.) Zara graduated from the Worcester School of Speech and Music. And, according to “Jet” magazine (published March 16, 1978), she was acting, even as a tot.
“I guess God gave me the talent,” Cully once said (according to “Jet”). “As a little bittie girl, I had a photographic memory. I could take a poem of 22 verses, read I over and get right up and recite it.” And the talent in the Cully family didn’t end with Zara. Zara’s younger brother, Wendell Cully, who was born in Worcester on Jan. 8, 1906, played trumpet for Sissle Noble, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and played on over 200 recordings for many other singers and musicians including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughn. Moore said her Aunt Zara and most, if not all, of her family, worked for the prestigious and wealthy Higgins family, as in the Milton Prince Higgins, the fi rst superintendent of WPI’s newly opened Washburn Shops and the founder of the Norton Emery Wheel Company “Ambrose was the head of the people that were employed by the Higgins,” Moore said. “They served the family. They did. But, however, the Higgins took a special interest in the Cullys. That’s the reason why Uncle Wendell was able to go through his schooling with his music. And, some of the other uncles did too.” Zara and her sister Hannah both married a set of Brown brothers. Zara married James M. Brown Sr. and they were married from 1914 until his death in 1968. Together, Cully and Brown had four children. Worcester was good to the Cully family but the city couldn’t hold on to them because they had talent and ambition that was too much to contain in Worcester, Moore said. So Zara left when she was a young woman in her late-teens/early 20s, Moore said. After leaving Worcester and moving to Jacksonville, Florida, Zara began producing, writing, directing and acting in numerous plays. For 15 years, she was a drama teacher at her own studio as well as at Edward Waters College, a historically black college founded in 1866 to educate freed slaves, but was disturbed by her encounters with Southern racism. “It was a traumatic experience,” she once recalled (according to “Jet”). “I met with such violence and things…and I was always having confl icts because I couldn’t take it. If I’d been a man, I guess I would have been lynched.”
Zara moved to New York to be close to her sister Agnes (Moore’s grandmother). Agnes, who taught herself how to sew in Worcester, was hired by American contralto Marian Anderson to be her main seamstress, and she also sewed for many entertainers and the elite in New York and Los Angeles, including Bette Davis. “Every Easter, Aunt Zara would make her granddaughter dresses,” Moore said. “So she could sew also and they were lovely dresses.” In the early ‘50s, the two sisters were movin’ on up to Hollywood, where Zara became a regular performer at the Ebony Showcase Theatre. On Feb. 28, 1978, Cully died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Moore was 10 years old when her Aunt Zara died. News of her death brought expressions of grief from her fans who only three days earlier watched her in a 90-minute retrospective of “The Jeff ersons.” Funeral services were held March 2, 1978, at the Church of Christian Fellowship in Los Angeles. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) in the Freedom Mausoleum, Columbarium of Victory, during a driving rainstorm. According to the funeral program, Zara’s son, Emerson Brown, sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and her granddaughters Diane D. Dix and Zara Gale Taylor sang “City Called Heaven” and “Ride On King Jesus.” In addition, Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles (and a family friend), and Paul Benedict, who played George’s English neighbor Harry Bentley on “The Jeff ersons,” spoke in memory of Zara Benedict was also one of the honorary pallbearers, which also included Sherman Hemsley and Damon Evans (the second actor to play Lionel Jeff erson). On June 9, 1978, Cully was posthumously awarded an NAACP special Image Award. “From the viewpoint of a child, Aunt Zara was very fascinating to me. She was very kind to us,” Moore said. “She’s a beautiful soul and I just I wished I knew her as an adult. I wish I had that time with her.” Norman Lear, the creator of “All in the Family” and “The Jeff ersons,” and Marla Gibbs did not answer any inquiries to be interviewed for this article.
ADOPTION OPTION
Mary is available through WARL's adoption program. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Meet Mary Hi! I’m Mary! I am an extremely sweet 10year-old girl looking for a quiet home with someone special to shower me with love. I have been well taken care of here at the shelter and am a favorite among staff , but it is now time for me to fi nd a home of my own. I am looking for a home where I will be the only pet. I am also looking for a home with someone who has experience administering insulin to dogs, as I am diabetic. Are you interested in meeting me? Please contact the shelter to fi nd out how to go about setting up a visit. I promise I’ll make a great best friend. I hope to see you soon! Welcome to Adoption Option, a partnership with the Worcester Animal Rescue League highlighting their adoptable pets. Check this space often to meet all of the great pets at WARL in need of homes. WARL is open seven days a week, noon-4 p.m., 139 Holden St. Check them out online at Worcesterarl.org, or call at (508) 853-0030. COVID-19 Protocols: The Worcester Animal Rescue League remains closed to walkin visits with the animals and appointments must be made, in advance, to meet with any of the animals. Masks are required. Visit https://worcesterarl.org/ for more information.
