Maxine Powell

Maxine Powell
Born Maxine Blair
May 30, 1915
Texarkana, Texas, United States
Died October 14, 2013 (aged 98)
Southfield, Michigan, United States
Ethnicity African American[1]
Occupation Etiquette instructor, talent agent
Known for Instructing Motown artists

Maxine Powell (May 30, 1915 – October 14, 2013) was an American etiquette instructor and talent agent. She taught grooming, poise, and social graces to many recording artists at Motown in the 1960s.[1][2][3][4]

Born Maxine Blair in Texarkana, Texas, she was raised by her aunt in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1933, attended Madam C.J. Walker's School of Beauty Culture, and worked as a manicurist to finance her acting studies; she also studied elocution and dance.[5] In the early 1940s she worked as a model and as a personal maid, and developed a one-woman show, An Evening with Maxine Powell, which she performed with a group at the Chicago Theatre.[5]

She moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1945, and taught self-improvement and modeling classes before opening the Maxine Powell Finishing and Modeling School in 1951. She bought a large house in 1953, which became the largest banquet facility in Detroit for African Americans, and worked as a talent agent, bringing black productions and artists to Detroit theaters and placing black models in advertising campaigns.[2][5] It was also around this time when she hired a printing business to prepare programs for her annual Las Vegas-style fashion show. The business was operated by the family of Berry Gordy. She and Gordy became friends and, in the early-1960s, he asked her opinion of the young artists that had signed with his record company, Motown.[2]

In 1964, she closed her school to be a consultant to Motown's talent. When the company expanded into new offices, specifically Hitsville U.S.A., she was hired into the Artist Personal Development department in 1966 to teach artists such as Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5 and The Supremes, whose Mary Wilson stated Powell taught them more than stage presence, but "tools for us as human beings". In Powell's words, she turned them into performers "fit for kings and queens." [1] Powell left Motown in 1969 and began teaching personal development courses from 1971 until 1985 at Wayne County Community College.[1][2][3][4]

On May 31, 2013, Powell suffered a fall. Her health steadily declined until her death of natural causes on October 14, 2013, at the age of 98 at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan.[1][3][4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Maxine Powell, mentor to Motown's stars, dies at 98
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Gale Contemporary Black Biography: Maxine Powell
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Maxine Powell, Motown Charm Coach, Dies at 98
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Maxine Powell Obituary
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Entertainment Makers: Maxine Powell

External links