In Memoriam 1992-1997/Luella McKay

In Memoriam 1992-1997 Luella McKay

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LUELLA MCKAY

Knight of Bahá’u’lláh 1918-1995

"Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Isaiah 60:1

Luella Miland McKay was born in Portland, Oregon, October 10, 1918, of William Earl and Olivia Elodia (Goff) Cranshaw. She was the eldest of the fam- ily's four children and was reared in Walla Walla, Washington, where she attended St. Patrick's Parochial and St. Vincent's Academy. While she was in her teens, the family moved to San Francisco, California, in a never-ending attempt to improve their humble circumstances.

"My father," she wrote in her autobiog- raphy, "was an impressive, natural speaker. Early in his life, he decided he wanted to become a lawyer, a profession for which he was well suited. But, during his high school years, an incident occurred which

[Page 216]"altered the course of his direction." Luella continued:

It had been a time when he was looking forward to graduating from the high school he attended in St. Mary's, Kansas. The principal of the school, however, who was an obvious racist, remarked that he would never graduate a Negro from his school.

The remark, of course, shocked my father—dealt quite a blow to his young pride. So, feeling hurt but standing firm, he pushed along a route other than the law profession. He became a Red Cap (porter) for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.

My mother's name was Olivia Goff Cranshaw. As a young single woman in her early twenties, she received an apprenticeship in mortuary science. How she got in to the profession is a remarkable story.

Not caring to continue filling jobs which offered no real advantage such as housemaids, etc., she decided to make a change. And make a change she did. She answered a newspaper ad—a request for an assistant in a funeral home. In spite of her racial handicap, she went forth with confidence.

The management, after eyeing her with some hesitancy, became intrigued by the little woman. She was pretty, well-groomed and professional-seeming in manner; and she had dared to cross the barrier of race. As it turned out, she got the job. Quickly and easily adjusting to the place and the routine, she dispelled the stereotypical notion that Black folks were afraid of dead folks.

Her most serious work began when her employers, recognizing her aptitude and abilities, decided that she could learn to embalm. She had watched the others work and, learning quickly, became skilled in performing autopsies upon request by the doctors.

I commend her for breaking away from the traditional patterns which have so often affected Black people's advancement and their quest for equality and justice. She could well serve as a heroine for those who struggle for identity and freedom. 133

When the family moved to San Francisco, Luella's mother negotiated for the purchase of a large, three-story Victorian building, which they subdivided into apartments during World War II to generate income.

In 1937 Olivia was not satisfied with the status-quo religions. Her search led her to Rosa Shaw, a Bahá’í who would become her spiritual mother. After attending a series of firesides in the home of the Shaws, Luella declared her belief in Bahá’u’lláh, probably in 1943—an event that was followed by the declarations of her mother, sister, and brother.

Luella became the first black Bahá’í youth in the city, and here she met such notables as the Hands of the Cause William Sears and Horace Holley. She was often asked to speak at Bahá’í functions, something that helped prepare her to be a teacher.

Luella graduated from high school and entered professional training at the Delores Premier Don Lux Beauty Academy. She continued her training at the Oakland School of Hairdressing and obtained

133 "Excepts from the Autobiography of Luella Cranshaw McKay" in her book America's Slaves: Descendants of the House of Israel, published by Goff Hammond, Detroit, Michigan, 1981, pp. 289-91. [Page 217]her instructor's license for the state of California. On June 10, 1945, she married Jasper Lewis McKay and bore a son, Nicholas William. In San Francisco, she taught at the Juliette Beauty Academy, and while her husband pursued his degree at Olivet College, she studied cultural history, anthropology, and the Martha Graham style of modern dance. But the center of Luella's life was the Faith.

In 1953, while attending the dedication of the Wilmette Temple and the Intercontinental Teaching Conference at Chicago, she volunteered to pioneer to Africa in response to the Guardian's Ten Year Crusade call. In her application she noted that her three-year-old son, her mother, sister, and friend Alyce Janssen would accompany her. As Alyce was white, Luella wrote that "our considerations were for areas unprejudiced toward mixed groups" and specified their preferences as Madeira, Spanish Morocco, or Tangiers. The United States Africa Teaching Committee approved them for Spanish Morocco, informing them that there was no freedom of religion there. Despite urgings from friends and some family members who insisted that she was too genteel and burdened with a child to venture so far, she trusted in God and prepared for the adventure. Her mother did not accompany her, and the group was comprised of her sister, Earleta, and Earleta's husband, John Flemming, as well as Alyce Janssen. They arrived in October of 1953 and were all, with the exception of baby Nicholas, accorded the title of Knight of Bahá’u’lláh 134. Later, in writing the "In Memoriam" for Alyce Janssen, Luella noted:

The writer of this memoir, whose family together with Alyce and others composed that pioneer team, recalls with profound tenderness the feeling of oneness, the mutual sharing of resources both tangible and intangible, that marked every step of what might otherwise have been a harrowing and distressing experience: the bedsprings without mattresses, the leaks in the ceilings, the unwanted lice, the bugs in the flour. These physical inconveniences intensified our fervor and increased our dedication to the goal we had set out to accomplish.135

Luella served the Faith in Africa from 1953 to 1959, helping to establish the first Local Spiritual Assembly in the tiny seaport town of Ceuta, Spanish Morocco. In Ceuta she used her skills as a cosmetologist to identify and treat cases of head lice, prevalent among the poor villagers.

In the summer of 1954 she became interested in pioneering again, "when, through a letter from Leroy Ioas, the Guardian stated that he was wondering if any of our Group could move to Spanish Guinea." That country was a difficult goal. An American, Elise Schreiber, had earlier traveled to Madrid and secured a visa rarely granted to single women. She was able to spend a month in Spanish Guinea, 136 but her visa was not renewed, the local police explaining to her that never in the country's history had a single woman entered before. The United States Africa Teaching Committee shared this information with Luella noting, "Thus no pioneer is at present on Spanish Guinea

134 Fawzi Zaynu’l-’Abidin and family also arrived in October of 1953 and were accorded the title Knights of Bahá’u’lláh.

135 See "In Memoriam," The Bahá’í World, vol. XIV, p. 315.

136 Elise Schreiber was named a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for Spanish Guinea, May 1954. [Page 218]and we are of course very anxious to have this area filled. However, we are doubtful if it is wise for a single woman to again undertake this assignment, in the light of Elise's experiences." Nevertheless Luella applied for a visa.

On September 15, 1954, she received a letter written on behalf of the Guardian:

He was most happy to learn that now you are endeavouring to gain permission to enter yet another African country as a pioneer; and that you are using every effort to get into Spanish Guinea. If you succeed, you can render the Faith a most meritorious service.

The Guardian would advise you to keep in close touch with Mr. Banani and the Africa Committee, and to follow their advice. He hopes you may accomplish this goal on which your heart is set, and not only enter, but settle and remain in that land.

The Guardian had added in his own hand:

May the Almighty, whose Cause you serve so splendidly, reward and sustain you always, remove all obstacles from your path, and enable you to achieve your heart's desire.

Your true brother, Shoghi.

In December she was granted a one-month visa, and in March 1955 she informed the Guardian that she was sailing for Fernando Pó.¹³⁷ In early July she wrote to another pioneer:

Good news. I have been given an additional 6 months to stay here, to study the native music and languages. I shall be changing my address and moving to Bata (Continental Guinea) in August. There I shall be in a better position to complete my studies.

¹³⁷ Santa Isabela was the capital of Spanish Guinea. In 1968 the territory gained independence as Equatorial Guinea, and the city, which is still the capital, is now called Malabo. The island of Fernando Pó has also been renamed and is now known as Bioko Island.

The matter of her being a single woman was never raised. A short time later another pioneer had arrived, a person known for his zeal. Leroy loas wrote:

Of course great caution will have to be used in the teaching work; and it would be my thought that you should write... to be very cautious in his teaching work, and to cooperate closely with Mrs. McKay in the work that she is doing. If he teaches too publicly, he may precipitate a situation which might result unfavorably for the Faith and bring about the expulsion of Luella McKay. We hope of course she will be able to stay until a strong Assembly has been established of native people.

In August the governor asked Luella to leave. She wrote, "[M]y name has been connected with... who acted very unwisely and without authority in teaching his creed. He became carried away with his enthusiasm and so was misunderstood and jailed."

She left behind one declarant, Titus Appan Uwak, a native of Nigeria. She had deepened him, and before she departed she was able to leave him with her Bahá’í library.

At the risk of great personal danger, Titus, with the help of a close and trusted friend, smuggled the books out of the hotel under their clothes, and brought them to his home where he buried them underground for safe keeping. It took nearly five days before the last book was removed, as precautions [Page 219]had to be taken so not to reveal any bulge from under their clothing.

In 1956 Earleta and John Flemming left for the United States, returning to Spanish Morocco later. Alyce Janssen had departed the country earlier. Luella continued to teach and to consolidate the Cueta community until April of 1959.

Returning to the United States, Luella took up her profession at the Detroit School of Cosmetology. Giving her attention to the poor and the dysfunctional, she is credited in Marquis Who's Who of American Women as having established the first certified school of cosmetology for the inmates at the Detroit House of Corrections—the Ruth McEvoy Beauty School, where she was an instructor and an administrator. She also served on the Board of Cosmetology—the licensing and regulatory agency for the state of Michigan—and was its president in 1971, 1974, and 1977.

Luella continued to serve the Faith by giving lectures, by hosting deepenings and firesides, and by assuming her Assembly responsibilities. She also served on the Goals Committee for Michigan. She was gratified to be reconnected with Titus Uwak who found her address and wrote to her many years after their parting in Spanish Guinea. He had returned to Nigeria and had become a teacher of the Cause there.

In 1981 she wrote and published America's Slaves: Descendants from the House of Israel, in which she called the blacks of America to a spiritual awakening of the noble role they must play in the building of the Kingdom of God and the new world order.

Luella was seventy-six years old at the time of her passing, April 15, 1995, in Southfield, Michigan. Upon learning of her death the following cable was sent on April 20 to the National Assembly of the United States by the Universal House of Justice:

SADDENED LOSS DEVOTED KNIGHT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH LUELLA MCKAY. HER PIONEERING ACTIVITIES IN AFRICA, INCLUDING SPANISH MOROCCO AND SPANISH GUINEA, WARMLY REMEMBERED. PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HER SOUL ABHÁ KINGDOM. KINDLY CONVEY OUR CONDOLENCES HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

Adapted, in part, from an article by Nicholas McKay