Maria Cole

About

Famous as the wife of singer Nat King Cole and the mother of vocalist Natalie Cole, she was a jazz musician in her own right. In her early years, she sang to the accompaniment of both Duke Ellington and Count Basie; she and Nat King Cole met during a shared vocal gig at the Zanzibar club.

Before Fame

The daughter of Mingo and Carol Hawkins and the niece of the famous writer and teacher Charlotte Hawkins Brown, she was born in North Carolina and raised in Massachusetts.

Trivia

Suffering from cancer, she passed away in Florida in her late eighties.

Family Life

With her second husband, Nat King Cole, she raised adopted children named Carole and Kelly and biological children named Natalie, Timolin, and Casey. Her first husband was Tuskegee Airman Spurgeon Ellington; her third marriage, following Nat King Cole's death, was to screenwriter and producer Gary DeVore.

Associated With

Her famous husband performed songs by Mack Gordon and many other popular twentieth-century composers.