Marie and Isaiah Edwards arrived in Seattle from Kansas in 1942 to work at Boeing. While working the swing shift, Marie Edwards decided use her mornings to study the beauty business, and she apprenticed with Ruth Whiteside, who had a beauty school at Seventh Avenue and Jackson Street. Edwards bought the school from Whiteside in 1946, and the Marie Edwards Beauty School moved to 23rd and Jackson in the Central Area. For 35 years, Edwards taught students at her school and created employment opportunities for Black women. She and her students also volunteered their services at youth centers and women’s prisons, where Edwards encouraged the women to learn marketable skills and take control of their lives. In 1947, Edwards persuaded the state Department of Social and Health Services to let women receiving public assistance enroll in her school on scholarship, and when beauty salons wouldn’t hire her students right out of school, she opened three salons to give her students experience.
In this photo, Marie Edwards receives a framed certificate in recognition of the Edwards Beauty School service to girls detained at the King County Youth Services Center. For five years, Edwards and her students taught the young women basic hygiene and to take pride in improving their personal appearance. Standing with Edwards is Pat Pattison, coordinator of volunteer activities at the Youth Center.
Caption information source: “She Made Beauty Her Business” by Marilyn Kirby, Seattle Times, February 27, 1991, retrieved at https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19910227&slug=1268564 Caption information source: “Youth Center volunteer gets recognition,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 18, 1960, p. 6.
