Baltimore Acting Legend Verna Day funeral details

Dear Friends and Colleagues in the Theatre, Film and Television Community:

As you may or may not know Verna Day-Jones (pictured left) passed on Friday morning, October 2, 2009. The very versatile Verna was not only one of the oldest SAG / AFTRA members in Maryland, acting in hundreds of movies, plays, television programs and commercials over more than
six decades, she was also a pioneering African American actress both on stage and
screen. A founding member of Baltimore's Arena Players, the 85 year old actress hob-nobbed with Lena Horne and other blackactors of note during her early years. She was a member of the first integrated acting troup in Maryland. Verna also appeared on television in the 1960's in special Black History month broadcasts depicting the black struggle at a time when that was almost never done. Her body of work and accomplishments as an actress are too numerous to list.

Few in her acting circles, however, knew the extent of her role as an early member of the National Council of Negro Women, an organization with a strong civil rights focus founded by Mary McCloudBethune and Dr. Dorothy I. Height, a contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Verna Day-Jones stayed active right up to the very end of her lengthy life. She could be seen in television commercials running in the DC area as recent as the week of her death. Having performed hundreds of parts, it was her one woman show portrayals of Harriet Tubman and Mary McCloud Bethune that were her favorite, and they were second to none.

A standing ovation to you Ms. Verna Day-Jones. You were a pioneer, a mentor to hundreds of African American actors, a community and civil rights activist, a wife and mother, a diva, and a realtrooper to the very end.

Below are the arrangements.

Viewings:
Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Services
8728 Liberty Road Randallstown,
MD 21133 (410) 655-0015

Saturday, October 10, 2009 12 noon - 5:00 PM and
Sunday, October 11, 2009 12 noon - 8:00 PM

Funeral:
Douglas Memorial Community Church
1325 Madison Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21217 (410) 523-1700

Monday, October 12, 2009
Wake: 10:00 am
Funeral: 11:00 am

Condolences can be sent to:

Ms Stephanie Carter (Daughter)
2508 Oakley Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21215

Sincerely,

Romaine Dorsey (SAG Member)

-Info from DavidAlexanderGroup