This is the fifth installment in our Faces From the Album series. In this installment, we profile three New Orleans ladies who distinguish themselves in the arts. Two of them – Mrs. Teresa Charles Wiltz and Miss Estella Mae Charles – as amateur composers and another – Mrs. Carrie Maxine Holtry Daniels – as a sculptress and art instructor.
Mrs. Teresa Charles Wiltz and Miss Estella Mae Charles – Photograph by Villard Paddio in The Louisiana Weekly
It was at the insistence of Mrs. Teresa Charles Wiltz, that Father Edward V. Casserly, S.S.J., a faculty member at Xavier University and pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish, arranged to have a half-hour of musical programming by Negro artists broadcast over radio station WWL, which was owned by Loyola University of the South. This half-hour, which was broadcast for the first time on Monday October 20, 1930, became a regular feature of the station’s programming. The highlight of that initial broadcast was the introduction of the song “You Still Own a Share in My Heart,” which was composed by Mrs. Wiltz and her younger sister, Miss Estella Mae Charles. Mrs. Wiltz was accompanied by Papa Celestin’s Tuxedo Jazz Band. In addition to “You Still Own a Share in My Heart,” Mrs. Wiltz composed at least one other song entitled “Lord Forgive Us for Our Sins,” which she copyrighted in 1938.
Seated: Dr. and Mrs. Wiltz; Standing: Muriel; Ellis; Philip, Jr.; Ellsworth; and Charles. Not pictured is Doris.
Teresa R. Charles was born on 16 September 1895, in the small community of Ama, in Saint Charles Parish. Her parents were Octave Charles and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Nelson. Her younger sister, Estella Mae Charles, was born in New Orleans on 19 May 1901. After migrating to New Orleans, the family lived Uptown in the Eleventh and Twelfth wards. Teresa was a member of the first graduating class of the preparatory department of Xavier University in 1917. She graduated from the Flint-Goodridge Hospital School of Nursing in 1920. She worked as the first black assistant head nurse in the Veteran’s Administration Hospital at Tuskegee, Alabama. She also worked as a public health nurse for the State of Louisiana. Teresa Charles married Dr. Philip G. Wiltz, a native of Parks, Louisiana and a graduate of Meharry Medical College. They had four sons – Dr. Philip G. Wiltz, Jr.; Dr. Charles J. Wiltz; Ellis Wiltz; and Ellsworth Wiltz – and two daughters – Doris T. Wiltz and Muriel R. Wiltz. Dr. and Mrs. Wiltz were pillars of Blessed Sacrament Parish. They made their home for over a half-century at 4737 Coliseum Street. Mrs. Wiltz’s sister and co-composer, Estella Mae Charles, worked as a teacher in a private school in New Orleans before migrating to Galveston, Texas in the early 1920s. She died there on 17 September 1969.
Mrs. C. Maxine Holtry Daniels
Carrie Maxine Holtry Daniels is fondly remembered as a woman of grace, determination, and great artistic ability. She was born on to James Addison Holtry and Ellen Whittington. She was reared in a very cultured home at 3327 Baronne Street, just off Louisiana Avenue, where discussion of business and civic endeavors was commonplace. Her father was an insurance executive who founded and led the Good Citizens Funeral Homes and the Good Citizens Life Insurance Company. James Holtry was also a great humanitarian who rendered aid to virtually every social, civic, and political cause in the city. Maxine was enrolled in Gilbert Academy on Saint Charles Avenue, where she came under the influence of Dr. Margaret Davis Bowen, a grande dame in her own right. Mrs. Bowen recognized Maxine’s natural gift for sculpture and encouraged her to study at the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati. She graduated with honors in 1944, becoming the academy’s first black graduate. She declined several offers to teach on the collegiate level in order to return to New Orleans and join the faculty at Gilbert Academy. After the closing of Gilbert, she began a distinguished career in the public high schools of the city. Among her students were writer Tom Dent, Ambassador Andrew Young, and artist Willie Birch. In 1954, she married Dr. Lawler P. Daniels, a distinguished Baptist clergyman and businessman.
Noted critic and reporter “Billboard” Jackson with C. Maxine Holtry Daniels and James A. Holtry at Good Citizens (Opportunity (Fall 1948), Vol. XXVI, No. 4, p. 136)
Later, Mrs. Daniels found time amid her business duties at Good Citizens to involve herself in civil rights work. She befriended Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., early in his career and remained close to Dr. and Mrs. King throughout their lives. She was particularly active at the local, state, and national levels with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was founded by Dr. King in New Orleans in 1957. She was also a past Worthy Matron of Daylight Chapter No. 36, Order of the Eastern Star (PHA) and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In addition to receiving the Crafter’s Scholarship while at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Mrs. Daniels also won prizes in the Atlanta University Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures, and Prints by Negro Artists.
Sources: The Louisiana Weekly, 25 October 1930; 11 September 1943; The Times-Picayune, 4 May 1987, page B7; 20 February 1992, page E1.
Jari C. Honora
What an invaluable site … thank you so much for assembling disseminating such a wealth of information ….