The Reverend William Tycer Nelson
(1915-1971)
My Dad, known to friends and family as “Billy,” was born in Marion, South Carolina but grew up in Sumter, along with five other brothers and a sister. My Grandparents were Reverend Warren J. Nelson and Maggie Grant Nelson. My Dad graduated from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., the University of Pittsburgh, PA, with a Master’s degree and Western Theological Seminary in Michigan. He was an active member of the Omega Pi Alpha Chapter Psi Phi Fraternity, and the American Association of University Professors. He was a profound speaker and after having taught at Union Theological Seminary and at Lincoln University, PA, he settled at Maryland State College (UMES) in Princess Anne, MD, as Associate Professor of Sociology and College Chaplain. He also pastored the Eastville, Virginia Union Baptist Church for thirteen years and traveled to many churches and colleges as a guest speaker and invited many famed guests to speak at MD State College events through the twenty three years he was there.
He and my Mom were always loving and supportive parents and very proud of me. I was thrilled that they both lived long enough to see me as a professional in the Music World and to be there for my first Broadway show and the many concerts they could attend through the years.
I would like to think that I got my “outgoing personality” from my tall and handsome Dad. He loved People…and I loved him.
Jane Elizabeth Avant
1913 – 1991
Born in New Bern, N.C., My Mom grew up in Durham, along with her sister and three brothers. My Grandparents were William George Avant and Jane Elizabeth Dudley. He was a Pastor, a teacher, a traveler, and a Howard University graduate with a degree of D.D. from Livingstone College, NC. My Grandmother was a High School teacher in Home Economics in Durham.
My Mom graduated from Howard University in D.C., as all the family had, (her father, my grandfather, was on Howard University’s first football team.) She also studied at Cornell University before settling back in Durham, where she taught English and Home Economics at Hillside High School. During college, she became an active member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority. As a popular seamstress, she opened a local dress shop with a friend, Dorothy Manley, and also became the Cafeteria Hostess at Camp Butner during the Second World War.
She was an excellent cook! One reason I love to cook and plan meals was to watch her and emulate her love for planning and designing for the home and parties, and events. We had a lot of time together and I enjoyed being with her. She was beautiful. She and my Dad married in 1940 and I was born four years later.
By the time I was five, we made the move to Princess Anne, Maryland, and that was home at Maryland State College for twenty three years. When my Dad died, she moved to Maple Shade, New Jersey, and lived there until she passed away in 1991.
