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Nellie (Walker) Imes (1891 - 1964)

Nellie (Nella) Imes formerly Walker aka Larsen
Born in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United Statesmap
Ancestors ancestors
Sister of [half]
Wife of — married 3 May 1919 in New York City, New York, United Statesmap
[children unknown]
Died at age 72 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United Statesmap
Profile last modified | Created 18 Apr 2021
This page has been accessed 508 times.
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Biography

Notables Project
Nella (Walker) Imes is Notable.
Danish Roots
Nella (Walker) Imes has Danish ancestors

Nellie Larsen was an American novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her 1929 novel Passing.[1]

Nellie Walker was born on 13 Apr 1891 in a poor district known as the Levee in south Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was the daughter of Peter Walker, believed to be a mixed race Afro-Caribbean immigrant from the Danish West Indies, and Pederline Marie Hansen, a Danish immigrant (b: 1868 Brahetrolleborg parish, Island of Fyn (Funen); d: 1951 Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California). [2]

Her father left or died when she was young. She spent several years of her early childhood in Denmark, and returned again to attend the University of Copenhagen for 3 years. [2]

Her mother who went by Mary Larsen (sometimes misspelled Larson) in the USA, worked as a seamstress and domestic worker in Chicago, Illinois, USA. When her mother remarried, Nellie took her stepfather's surname of Larsen or Larson. [2]

She became a nurse at Lincoln hospital in the Bronx. She married an African-American physicist and moved to Harlem where she became a librarian and wrote novels.

She passed away on 30 Mar 1964 at her apartment in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. [2] She was buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery. A headstone was placed in 2006 by Danish-American author Heidi Durrow. [3]

In 2018, the New York Times published a belated obituary. [4]

In 2020, the United States Postal Services honored her as Nella Larsen, one of the 4 people on the Voices of the Harlem Renaissance stamp issue. [5]

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nella_Larsen
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 A Great Danish American Birthday - Nella Larsen, National Foundation for Danish America, April 13, 2021
  3. Find A Grave: Memorial #32306353
  4. Bonnie Wertheim, Overlooked: Nella Larsen, New York Times, 2018.
  5. Lisa Herndon, "Postage Stamps Honor Scholars and Novelist in Schomburg Center Collections," New York Public Libraries. July 9, 2020.




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