Marie Joe Browne (March 17, 1902- 1999) was a stage actress, teacher, school secretary, and community volunteer. The collection consists of two video recordings including Browne presenting at a nursing home, and Jester Hairston on his ninetieth birthday in Estonia; and one record of popular songs.
Marie Joe Browne (March 17, 1902- 1999) was a stage actress, teacher, school secretary, and community volunteer. Browne was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Joe and Lizz Browne. Browne received her acting training from Helen Boll's Dramatic Studio in Boston, Massachusetts. She made her debut performing monologues at twenty-four years old. Throughout her career, she recited the works of Black writers and poets, including Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and James Weldon Johnson. Browne performed with the Boston Players, an all-Black theatrical troupe supported by the Boston Urban League, for six years. During the mid-1930s and 1940s, she toured historically Black colleges performing monologues.
Browne moved to St. Mary's County, Maryland, in 1945, where she began teaching with the United Service Organizations (USO). She later taught at Jarboesville School, where she became the school secretary, and the Spring Ridge Middle School until her retirement in 1974. Browne died in 1999 in St. Mary's County.
The collection consists of two video recordings including Browne presenting at a nursing home, and Jester Hairston on his ninetieth birthday in Estonia; and one record of popular songs.They are arranged alphabetically by title. Item titles are devised from the content of the recordings.
Gift of Marie Joe Browne Estate, April 2000.
Collection inventoried by Christopher Arena. Collection processed and described by Ornella U. Baganizi, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.
See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Marie Joe Browne collection, Sc MG 685.
See the Photographs and Prints Division for the photographs.
See the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division for books from this acquisition.