Entertainment

“Her defense was profound” – The Hollywood Reporter

At dawn on December 1, the home in Trousdale Estates of Jacqueline Avant and her husband Clarence, a popular music executive known as the “Godfather of Black Music”, was breached and led to to the death of Mrs. Avant. The 81-year-old philanthropist and former model were shot dead during the event, their motives still being investigated by Beverly Hills police. As of Thursday afternoon, December 2, Beverly Hills police have arrested 29-year-old Aariel Maynor in Los Angeles as the sole suspect.

“Jacquie,” as her friends and family called her, was born Jacqueline Alberta Gray on March 6, 1940, in Jamaica Queens, New York. In the 1960s, she began her career as a hospital technician and phlebotomist in New York City, and also modeled for the Ebony Fashion Fair, an annual fashion show and event. The fundraiser, created by Eunice Johnson of Chicago’s Johnson Publishing Company, traveled to 30 cities, focusing on their Black neighborhoods. The show featured mostly African-American models wearing European luxury designers like Yves St. Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Givenchy and Jean Paul Gaultier.

It was around this time that she met and was flirted with by her fiancé Clarence Avant, who was building a reputation in the music industry as a manager, producer, executive and businessman.

“Ebony Fashion Fair models are like the first models Blacks actually see on the runway, so for a Negro in 1960-something, a Fair model. fashion is like a big deal,” says Nelson George, cultural and musical historian, in the 2019 Netflix documentary Black Godfather, which chronicles the life and career of Clarence Avant and is directed by Reginald Hudlin.

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Clarence Avant and his wife Jacqueline Avant at BET’s Pre-Grammy Brunch 2017.
Earl Gibson III / Getty Images

In a statement after learning of her death, Hudlin said: “Jacquie is the epitome of grace, elegance, kindness and good taste. Like so many people in Hollywood, I am greatly indebted to Clarence and Jacquie’s guidance and generosity. This is a senseless tragedy that has left our entire industry reeling, confused and heartbroken.”

The couple married in 1967, and after moving from West to Los Angeles, their union had a daughter and a son: the former US Ambassador to the Bahamas (and the wife of the Netflix co-CEO). Ted Sarandos) Nicole Avant, and Alexander Du Bois Avant.

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A family photo of the Avant family (from left, Clarence, Alexander, Jacqueline and Nicole) featured in the 2019 documentary film “The Black Godfather”
Netflix

The Avants are 55-year residents of Beverly Hills, a notable period when a Black family moved to the area in 1968, in a city where red and housing discrimination has create very isolated residential areas.

In Black Godfather, Clarence tells the story of how the family originally wanted to move into the historic black, upper-class neighborhood of Baldwin Hills – “Ray Charles and Nancy Wilson lived there. Everyone lived in Baldwin Hills,” he said — especially since he couldn’t afford a home in Beverly Hills at the time. Thanks to a loan from then-boss and mentor Joe Glaser, Avants was able to move in.

Throughout her life, Jacqueline Avant was a champion of the arts and philanthropy: in 1974 she was the president of the NOW membership and in 1975 she was the president of the Neighborhood of Watts, a support group for the South Central Community Childcare Center. She later served on the board of directors for the Center for International Students at the University of California at Los Angeles, and two terms as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles.

More recently, she volunteered to exhibit in the Japanese Art Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and sits on the board of The Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center – a project she and her husband has been supportive since the beginning. when it was just a non-profit organization, and the cultural center has yet to be built inside the former Beverly Hills Post Office.

“They are passionate about art and culture, and they recognized the potential to repurpose this post office into a thriving performing arts campus long before it became a reality. And they’ve stuck with it for over two decades and made sure – along with the rest of our board – that it really does happen,” said Rachel Fine, chief executive officer and executive officer. CEO of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, says The Hollywood Reporter.

According to Fine, The Avants are “extremely generous” sponsors and “absolute weekly” sponsors at the venue. On Jacquie’s 80th birthday in March 2020, she asked all of her friends and guests to contribute to Wallis.

“On my walk this morning, I just thought about what makes a fulfilling board member of a cultural nonprofit,” Fine continued. “She was very proud and so her defense was very poignant. She is very dedicated to our mission and vision and conveys both through our work on stage. She sits on the Education Committee, she is very passionate about our art programs.”

In addition, Jacqueline is very active in the Japanese community in Los Angeles, and is a well-known art collector. She has one of the largest collections of Japanese lacquer boxes and other artefacts in the United States; In 2013, her collection was viewed at the Crow Asian Art Collection in Dallas, Texas, and she has also been published in Asian Art Magazine on two occasions.

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Jacqueline Avant’s lacquer collection on display at the Crow Collection of Asian Art 2013.
Museum of Asian Art Courtesy Crow

Amy Hofland, senior director of Crow Collection, told CHEAP: “For me, this is just a loss of light in the world. In the world of museums, we call her ‘a collector of dreams’, which means to her it’s more than just a collection. It’s about this passion – in her case, for Japanese lacquerware – and about connecting with friends, people and young students. She was very dedicated to how we taught the collection while it was here, and so I think we found a good friendship in each other… that’s the kind of person Jacquie is, just an open-minded human being. , lovingly, who carries the collection around the world and shares it generously with the world. ”

Jacqueline Avant started her lacquer collection in the early 1990s and has amassed an impressive collection of items such as ink cartridges, incense holders, pipe holders, etc. art form, lectures on her collection at Spelman College, Scripps College and Broadway Federal Bank, and is passionate about sharing Asian art with the community – an endeavor her husband Clarence enthusiastically supports, follow friends.

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A lacquer work from Jacqueline Avant’s collection.
Museum of Asian Art Courtesy Crow

“I think as the wife of a major musical figure, this is her self-expression. This is Jacqueline’s story,” Hofland said, adding, “Lacquer is an exquisite art form that hails from Japan. It requires time and high precision. Beauty and perfection are the ideals of lacquer, and that is who Jacqueline is: refined. She is lovable in her care as one is for others. And I think that’s what makes a human being.”

Jacqueline Avant is survived by her husband Clarence, their two children, Nicole and Alexander, her sister Jean Morse, and a host of nieces, nephews, and friends.

Veteran music producer Quincy Jones, one of Clarence and Jacquie’s closest companions, said in a statement: “The heaviness of my heart today is unlike any other that I’ve been through in my life. The news of the tragic loss of my beautiful ‘sister-in-law’ Jacquie Avant is beyond words. She was purest of soul in every sense, and the Rock of Gibraltar to Clarence, their children, and her friends. All of us, each one of us, are better people because Jacquie has been in our lives. Dearest Jacquie, I will forever remember your gentle smile, your “loving glance” eyes and the beauty that resided in every fiber of your heart. God bless you.”

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