In a previous post on CreoleGen, mention was made to farrier and blacksmith George Ulysse Maury, who as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Louisiana exchanged interesting correspondence with his co-fraternalist Paul Dominguez who worked for the U. S. government in Haiti in the 1920s. While shoeing horses in his shop on North Claiborne Avenue and degree work with his Masonic brethren were major interests of Mr. Maury’s, it was the glamour of cosmetology and the thrill of the entertainment world that captivated his daughter Juanita Maury Logan.
George Ulysse Maury (1872-1926), father of Juanita Maury Logan.
Juanita Fidélise Maury was born on 6 October 1900 in the home her parents rented at 1634 Spain Street near North Derbigny. She was the third child and third consecutive daughter born to George Ulysse Maury (15 October 1872-19 November 1926) and Idéa Fidélise Morand (24 April 1875-8 June 1954). In time, another two daughters and four sons would join their family.
Juanita and the seven other surviving children came of age in the city’s downtown section, first at 2022 North Miro and later at 1551 North Derbigny Street, where their father died in November 1926. Juanita began her adult life as a stenographer before moving into hairdressing. In 1927, Juanita; her widowed mother Idéa; and five of her seven siblings joined the Great Migration out of the South, settling in Chicago. Within less than a year of arriving in the Windy City, Juanita had left the mostly residential area of Woodlawn where her family settled, to live at 439 East Oakwood Boulevard in the bustling Bronzeville neighborhood, well known as the “Black Metropolis.” Just around the corner at 3953 South Parkway (now Martin Luther King Drive), she opened the “Neeta Beauty Shop.” The name of the shop being a play on her first name. Among the items she sold were her own line of “Nuvo” beauty products, which she guaranteed “will hold your man.”
Neeta Beauty Shop, 3953 South Parkway (now M. L. King Drive).
Newspapers regularly alluded to Juanita’s good looks. The Pittsburgh Courier of 24 February 1934 featured a picture of her with her fashionably arched eyebrows and citing her as a “authority on beauty,” shared her advice to women: “Men prefer women who are feminine … Most men are overgrown boys. Pet them and make them believe they are the grandest persons in the world.”
“Alluring Creole” “Creator of Nuvo products” “Authority on Beauty”
Juanita’s short-lived marriage to Harold G. Logan, who was a theatrical entertainer, may have inspired her interest in the performing arts. In addition to running her beauty shop in Chicago, she regularly visited the major cities of the East Coast and tried her hand at making music recordings. Perhaps inspired by her New Orleans contemporary, Lizzie Miles, who sang the blues in English and Créole, Juanita wrote French lyrics to the “St. Louis Blues” which she submitted to the Handy Brothers Music Company, owned by W. C. Handy.
Dr. Alexander M. Rivera (Yonkers, NY); Jayne Taylor (Harrisburg, PA); Juanita Maury (Chicago); Beatrice Jeffries (Atlantic City); Joe Chapman (New York City) at Atlantic City on Labor Day 1939.
In approximately 1933, she moved to Sugar Hill in Harlem, where she was active in social and charitable affairs as she was before in Chicago. In August 1935, she announced plans to open a beauty shop on West 135th Street. She traveled with friends to Atlantic City and even spent the summer of 1943 managing a hotel on the coast. During this time, she composed several songs, including “Yvonne Marie,” “Why Should I Forget?” “Tanganyika,” with Charles St. Clair Burnham, and “Luanna from Havana,” with the famous pianist and composer Eubie Blake. In March 1942, Decca Records sent a representative to New York to arrange a recording of Juanita singing her songs “You Gotta Go” and “Why Should I Forget.” Her forays into music introduced her to many talented people, including lyricist Andy Razaf (“Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose”), to whom The Pittsburgh Courier gossip column “The Lowdown” speculated she was engaged in 1936. In 1942, the column “Still Meddlin’” published in Harlem’s The People’s Voice announced that she was keeping company with McKissack “Mack” Latham, a fellow Southerner who lived in Chicago and later Los Angeles.
George Jones; Judson McDowell; Mrs. George Jones; Mrs. Doe Prescott; Mack Jones; and Juanita Logan, following the Joe Louis-John Henry Lewis fight, at the Mimo Club in Harlem.
Around 1944, Juanita moved back to Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. In October 1945, she joined the staff of The Chicago Bee as its theatrical and night life editor. Her column “Whirl Wind,” covered news of music and theatrical acts, fashionable soirees, movies, as well as some general observations on city life. In April 1946, she joined the Count Basie Orchestra as a vocalist when they appeared at the Regal Theater. Her journalistic coverage of the entertainment world was short-lived however, as in December 1946, she traveled to the Mayo Clinic for cancer treatment. Shortly after returning, Juanita resigned her position with the Bee. In January 1947 she moved in with her sister Hélène and brother-in-law Benjamin H. Johnson at 229 West 29th Place.
Clara (O’Brien) Maury; Cecilia (Maury) Pereda y Real; Ulysse J. Maury; Juanita (Maury) Logan; Hélène “Alaine” (Maury) Johnson; and Gilbert L. Maury at the Club Rhumboogie in Chicago.
Juanita Fidélise Maury Logan died at the age of forty-six on the evening of 2 September 1947 at her sister’s home. Her remains were shipped to New Orleans and interred in her family’s vault along Iberville Street in Square 3 of St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. She was survived by her mother, Idéa, and seven siblings: Edna Mary Maury (Mrs. Louis) LaCroix; Cecilia Thérèse Maury (Mrs. Aniceto) Pereda y Real; Ulysse Joseph Maury; Gilbert Louis Maury; Edwin Lucien Maury; Lionel Victor Maury; and Hélène Georgina “Alaine” Maury (Mrs. Benjamin) Johnson.
George U. Maury Family Vault, St. James Aisle, Square 3, St. Louis Cemetery No. 2.
Jari C. Honora
Sources: The Afro-American (Baltimore), 25 March 1933, p. 7; 3 August 1935, p. 7; 16 September 1939, p. 12; The Pittsburgh Courier, 24 February 1934, p. 6; 8 August 1936, sec. 2, p. 7; 4 February 1939, p. 5; Chicago Bee, 4 November 1945, p. 16; 15 October 1944, p. 12; 4 November 1945, p. 16; 9 June 1946, p. 10; 18 August 1946, p. 14; 8 December 1946, p. 9; 19 January 1947, p. 13; Atlanta Daily World, 24 March 1942, p. 3; New York Age, 22 January 1943, p. 4; Chicago Daily News, 5 April 1946, p. 29; Daily Citizen (New York City), 7 November 1933, p. 8; The People’s Voice (New York City), 21 February 1942, p. 36; 14 March 1942, p. 33; 19 June 1943, p. 18; Orleans Parish, Louisiana Birth Records (Louisiana State Archives), vol. 119, p. 266, Juanita Fidélise Maury (6 October 1900); Historical Society of Philadelphia, Handy Bros. Music Company Blues Compositions, MSS 26, Box 1, folder 9, “St. Louis Blues,” (French lyrics), Juanita Logan; Allen T. Woods, Woods’ Directory: Being a Colored Business, Professional and Trades Directory of New Orleans, Louisiana (New Orleans: Allen T. Woods, 1912), p. 69; The Louisiana Weekly (New Orleans), 4 August 1928, p. 2; Gilbert U. Maury obituary, The Times-Picayune, 21 November 1926, p. 2; Idéa Maury obituary, The Times-Picayune, 9 June 1954, p. 2.
This was so remarkable to read as Juanita’s mother Idea was a first cousin of my great grandmother Edwige Morand. I only know this through genealogical research and there is no family lore on my side of the family about the Maurys but I’m confident that my grandmother knew her aunt Idea and what is really remarkable to me is that my grandmother’s name was Yvonne Marie, like the song you mention here!!!