Trivia

Mauryne Taylor was one of 124 mid-year graduates of Garnet-Patterson Junior High School at commencement exercises on January 29, 1936. She was among the 46 students to attend Dunbar High School, one of "the three colored high schools" in the District of Columbia, USA. In high school she was an honor student and the class poet.

Family members writing about Mauryne many years after she was snubbed by the Hollywood studios were convinced that a quote by Mauryne was accurate. The studios told her that she "was too light and beautiful to be black, and too 'exotic' to be white." Independent producers wanted her to relocate to Europe. Instead Mauryne chose to participate in the birth of black cinema. An artistic underground developed which were known at the time as "race movies." Mauryne was adamant that her light skin not hide her African-American ethnicity, and refused to participate in a Hollywood culture that only would cast Blacks as servants or buffoons.

Jazz pianist and composer Billy Taylor was Mauryne Taylor's cousin. After Hollywood blocked her career path she worked with her cousin at the Wells, a Harlem jazz club. She also sang at jazz clubs on 52nd Street and wrote lyrics for Arnold Records.

An original composition was recited by Mauryne Brent on April 7, 1946 broadcast over radio station WWDC. It was part of the Institute of Race Relations broadcasts, "Americans All." The purpose of the series was to fight job discrimination based on color, faith, or place of national origin and to support new laws that would penalize those who deny American men and women their natural rights. Mauryne's composition was entitled, "A New American.".

Great-aunt of actress Melissa Haizlip.

Half-sister of author Shirlee Taylor Haizlip.

Julian Taylor, Mauryne's father, was among other things insurance salesman, dance teacher, radio disc jockey, concert soloist, and evangelist. For a few years in the early 1930s he accepted a call to pastor Ebenezer Baptist Church in Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA. The family lived there until Mauryne's parents divorced. They had been separated much of the time during his pastorate. Later Julian served the Macedonia Baptist Church in Ansonia, Connecticut, USA as pastor for 42 years. In returning to the nation's capital Mauryne's mother, Viola, secured a position as an elevator operator for Woodard & Lothrop, Washington's premiere department store.

With Mauryne at the time of her passing in August 2013 were her daughter, Leilani Clarkson; son, Desta Brent; grandchildren, Gina, Shane, Michele, Janelle, Alexis, Che and Elijah.

Leland Simmons Brant, first husband of Mauryne Taylor, died suddenly at the Naval Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, USA on November 9, 1943. His death occurred five days before Mauryne's twenty-second birthday. She was left with three young children: Leilani, Leland, Jr., and Charles Ulysses Brent. At the time she was expecting a child, Desta Brent, a son, who was born in 1944. Leland was interred on November 15, 1943 at Arlington National Cemetery, He had been injured in the landing at Sicily before his accidental death.

Prior to moving to Silver Spring, Maryland, USA where she passed away in 2013, Mauryne and her daughter, Leilani Clarkson, lived for many years in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Marriage license applications listed in a Washington, DC newspaper on July 28th included William W. Grant, Jr., age 25, from Ansonia, Connecticut, USA and Mauryne Brent, age 23, 758 Gresham Place, NW. They were married on August 20, 1945 in Washington, DC, USA.