Maria Frances Hawkins was born in Boston. Her mother died when she was a child so she was sent to North Carolin to live with her aunt, Charlotte Hawkins Brown. You probably know Brown. She was the famed African-American educator who started the Palmer Institute near Greensboro. Maria took the last name Ellington when she married Spurgeon Ellington, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

There are numerous obituaries for Maria Cole on the web. Here’s a link to The New York Times’ obit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/arts/music/maria-cole-jazz-singer-and-wife-of-nat-dies-at-89.html

She was the mom to a friend of my youngest brother who had a radio show every friday night on WFDD FM which is the NPR station that is owned by Wake Forest University. Jim always played his (Duk Ellington’s)compositions and the music of many other composers as well. And Duke Ellington was a product of the African-American upper class in Washington,DC so he could communicate with not only them but to anyone from any walk of life just as we should all with the kindness and grace that not only he possesed but Maria Ellington Cole as well. Jane Steele,MA