Those We Lost — November 9

Honoring those we lost on November 9 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Roger Arliner Young

Born August 20, 1899 — died November 9, 1964

First Black woman to earn a doctorate in zoology

Roger Arliner Young of Clifton Forge, Virginia, studied and worked under Ernest Everett Just at Howard, became the first Black woman to publish in Science and to do research at Woods Hole, and in 1940 earned a doctorate in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania, the first for a Black woman in the United States. She taught at North Carolina College, Shaw and Southern University while caring for her mother and battling mental illness and poverty. She died in New Orleans on November 9, 1964, at 65.

William L. Dawson

Born April 26, 1886 — died November 9, 1970

Chicago congressman; first Black chair of a standing House committee

William L. Dawson, an Albany, Georgia, native and World War I officer, represented Chicago’s South Side in Congress from 1943 until his death and in 1949 became the first Black member to chair a standing committee, Expenditures in the Executive Departments, later renamed Government Operations. He ran the most powerful Black political organization in the country and helped defeat the Winstead amendment that would have let soldiers opt out of integrated units. He died in Chicago on November 9, 1970, at 84.

Ed Bradley

Born June 22, 1941 — died November 9, 2006

CBS ’60 Minutes’ correspondent

Ed Bradley of Philadelphia started in radio, covered the Vietnam War for CBS and was wounded in Cambodia, became CBS’s first Black White House correspondent in 1976, and in 1981 joined 60 Minutes, where he reported for 26 years and won 19 Emmys. He died of leukemia at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on November 9, 2006, at 65.

Judith Jamison

Born May 10, 1943 — died November 9, 2024

Alvin Ailey star and artistic director; ‘Cry’

Judith Jamison of Philadelphia joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1965, and Ailey created the 15-minute solo ‘Cry’ for her in 1971, depicting the struggles of Black women. She led the company as artistic director from Ailey’s death in 1989 until 2011, the first African American woman to direct a major modern dance company. She died in New York on November 9, 2024, at 81, after a brief illness.

Lou Donaldson

Born November 1, 1926 — died November 9, 2024

Blue Note alto saxophonist, ‘Alligator Bogaloo’

Lou Donaldson of Badin, North Carolina, signed with Blue Note in 1952 and stayed through the mid-1970s, recording with Thelonious Monk, Clifford Brown, Horace Silver and Art Blakey as hard bop took shape, and had soul-jazz hits with ‘Alligator Bogaloo’ and ‘Midnight Creeper’ that hip-hop producers later sampled. He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2013. He died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on November 9, 2024, at 98.

Ella Jenkins

Born August 6, 1924 — died November 9, 2024

‘First lady of children’s music’, Grammy lifetime honoree

Ella Jenkins, born in St. Louis and raised in Chicago, recorded 39 albums of call-and-response songs for children for Folkways over nearly seven decades, beginning in 1957, performed on all seven continents, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. She died in Chicago on November 9, 2024, at 100.

Lenny Wilkens

Born October 28, 1937 — died November 9, 2025

Hall of Fame NBA player and coach; three-time inductee

Lenny Wilkens of Brooklyn was a nine-time All-Star guard for the St. Louis Hawks and Seattle SuperSonics, coached the Sonics to the 1979 NBA title, won gold with the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, and retired having coached a record 2,487 NBA games. He was enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame as a player, as a coach and with the 1992 Dream Team. He died on November 9, 2025, at 88; his family did not give a cause.