Maria Cole

{{Infobox musical artist

| image = Nat and Maria Cole 1951.jpg

| caption = Cole with her husband Nat, 1951

| birth_name = Maria Antoinette Hawkins

| birth_date = {{birth date|1922|8|1}}

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2012|7|10|1922|8|1}}

| death_place = Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.

| spouse = Spurgeon Ellington
Nat King Cole
Gary DeVore

| module2=Children: 5, including Natalie Cole

| genre = Jazz

| years_active = 1936–1955

| occupations = Singer

| label = Capitol

| associated_acts = {{flatlist|

}}

Maria Cole{{cite web|url=http://news.ncdcr.gov/2008/06/11/nat-king-coles-widow-maria-cole-visits-charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum/|title=Nat "King" Cole's Widow Maria Cole Visits Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710035701/http://news.ncdcr.gov/2008/06/11/nat-king-coles-widow-maria-cole-visits-charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum/|archive-date=July 10, 2012}} ({{née}} Hawkins; August 1, 1922 – July 10, 2012) was an American jazz singer and the wife of singer Nat King Cole; mother of the singer Natalie Cole.{{cite news|url=https://news.yahoo.com/widow-nat-king-cole-dies-cancer-89-014826877.html|title=Widow of Nat 'King' Cole dies of cancer at 89|last=Associated Press|author-link=Associated Press|date=July 11, 2012|publisher=Yahoo! News|access-date=July 12, 2012}}{{cite book|last=Gene Lees, Nat Hentoff|title=You Can't Steal a Gift: Dizzy, Clark, Milt, and Nat|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|year=2004|pages=227–35}}

Early life

Cole was born in Boston and was the niece of Charlotte Hawkins Brown.{{cite news|url=http://news.ncdcr.gov/2008/06/11/nat-king-coles-widow-maria-cole-visits-charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum/ |title=Nat "King" Cole's Widow Maria Cole Visits Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum|date=June 11, 2008|publisher=North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources|access-date=July 12, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710035701/http://news.ncdcr.gov/2008/06/11/nat-king-coles-widow-maria-cole-visits-charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum/ |archive-date=July 10, 2012 }}{{cite book|last=Henry Louis Gates, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham|title=African American Lives|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/africanamericanl00gate/page/106 106]|isbn=978-0-19-516024-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanl00gate/page/106}} Her father Mingo Hawkins was a letter carrier. Her mother Carol died while giving birth to her sister.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/notableblackamer00jess_0|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/notableblackamer00jess_0/page/115 115]|quote=Maria Hawkins Ellington Boston.|title=Notable Black American Women|year=1992|via=Internet Archive|publisher=VNR AG|isbn=9780810347496|access-date=July 13, 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://news.ncdcr.gov/2008/06/11/nat-king-coles-widow-maria-cole-visits-charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum|title=Nat "King" Cole's Widow Maria Cole Visits Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum |publisher=News.ncdcr.gov |date=February 25, 1965 |access-date=July 13, 2012 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710035701/http://news.ncdcr.gov/2008/06/11/nat-king-coles-widow-maria-cole-visits-charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum/ |archive-date=July 10, 2012}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/brightboulevards00bogl |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/brightboulevards00bogl/page/327 327] |quote=Caro MINGO HAWKINS COLE. |title=Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood |year=2005 |via=Internet Archive |publisher=One World Ballantine Books |isbn=9780345454188 |access-date=July 13, 2012}}

In 1943 she married Spurgeon Ellington, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black unit of the Army Air Corps in World War II. He died during a training flight.

On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), Maria married Nat King Cole. The Coles were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. They had five children: Natalie (1950–2015), who had a successful career as a singer; an adopted daughter, Carole (1944–2009, the daughter of Maria's sister), who died of lung cancer at the age of 64; an adopted son, Nat Kelly Cole (1959–1995), who died at the age of 36; and twin daughters, Casey and Timolin (born September 26, 1961), whose birth was announced in the "Milestones" column of Time magazine on October 6, 1961.

Maria supported Nat during his final illness and stayed with him until his death. Five years after the death of Nat King Cole, Maria Cole bought a house in Tyringham, Massachusetts, known as South House, where she raised her five children, including singer Natalie Cole.{{cite web |last1=Rozhon |first1=Tracie |title=Habitats/Echoes of Nat (King) Cole; A Berkshire Estate with a Special Beat |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/24/realestate/habitats-echoes-of-nat-king-cole-a-berkshire-estate-with-a-special-beat.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=September 17, 2019 |date=July 24, 1994}}

Maria was married to screenwriter Gary DeVore from 1969 until their divorce in 1978.

Career

She was a jazz singer who worked with Count Basie and Duke Ellington, under the name Marie Ellington. She met Nat "King" Cole while they were both singing at the Zanzibar club.

She was co-host of a talk show, "Tempo," that aired on KHJ television in Los Angeles in the 1960s.