"Al'Lelia Walker" (June 6,1885-August 17,1931)

Was the only daughter of Madam C.J.Walker,helped her mother found the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Denver in 1906.From 1908 to 1918,she played a major role in the growth of the Madam C.J. Walker business empire by managing the Pittsburgh branch of the family's hair-care company,overseeing Lelia College,the school of cosmetology and later the Walker College of Hair culture in New York.A'Lelia also opened the New York office of the Madam C.J. Walker Company and ran its elite beauty salon.When Madam C.J.Walker died in 1919,A'Lelia became president of the company.She was born in Vicksburg,Mississippi.She grew up in St.Louis and attended Knoxville College in Tennessee before entering the family before entering the family business.A'Llia was a competent business manager who often clashed with her mother over the company's administration,she lost interest in company affairs after the death of her mother and instead immersed herself in Harlem's dynamic social life in the 1920s.She changed her name to A'Lelia to reflect her new interest.As part of her inheritance,she assumed control over the lavish estate,Villa Lewaro,on the Hudson River,North of New York City that had been built by Madam Walker as well as the Harlem townhouse on 136 Street near Lenox Avenue.Taking advantage of the success of the Walker Company in the early 1920s,A'Lelia entertained the rich,famous,and soon to be famous including African and European royalty,Harlem Renaissance artists,civil rights leaders,white and black bankers and businessmen.A fourth of July extravaganza included fireworks for visiting Liberian President C.D.B.King.At almost six feet tall,A'lelia Walker's attire and signature turban became legendary as her parties;she spared no expense on either.She married 3 times: to John Robinson,a hotel waiter,whom she divorced in 1914; Dr.Wiley Wilson in 1919;and Dr.James Arthur Kennedy,in 1926,whom she divorced just a few months before her death.Al'Lelia had no biological children,but in 1912 she adopted Fairy Mae Bryant (1898-1945) who became known as as Mae Walker,who traveled with Madam C.J.Walker as a model and assistant.In November 1923,Al'Lelia orchestrated an elaborate a "Million Dollar Wedding"for Mae's marriage to Dr.Gordon Jackson.Mae Walker, a graduate of Spelman Seminary in Atlanta,divorced Gordon in 1926 and married Attorney Marion R.Perry in September 1927.Al'Lelia died of a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by hypertension the same ailment that led to her mother's death in 1919.Her funeral was lavish and memorable.More than 11,000 people field past her casket in a Harlem mortuary and 1,000 turned for the invitation-only funeral  where Mary McLeod Bethune delivered the eulogy and Rev.Adam Clayton Powell presided over the service.Langston Hughes read a poem written for the occasion.As her casket was lowered into the ground next to her mother's grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx,Herbert Julian-the celebrated "Black Eagle"-flew over in a small plane and dropped dahlias and gladiolas onto the site.