Obituary of Hazel Markham

HAZEL WATERS MARKHAM May 13, 1921 – April 4, 2017 “New York born and bred” aptly describes Hazel Gwendolyn Waters Markham. Just a few years ago, when asked whether she wished to live closer to her daughter in Baltimore, Hazel raised her left eyebrow and said, “I am a New Yorker.” Indeed, Hazel was a quintessential New Yorker for her generation. Born Friday, May 13, 1921 at Harlem Hospital in New York City, the child of immigrants from Virgin Gorda in the British West Indies, Hazel was the middle child of Herbert Ashford Waters and Estelle Christine O’Neal, the younger sister of Raymond and older sister of Inez who she always said she “raised by hand.” The Waters’ home was filled with a love for music and books. During the Depression years, her father never stopped bringing home books even though her mother said they might have to eat them. Raised on 136th Street, Hazel traveled to the East Side’s very affluent P.S. 6, where she received free reign to a treasure trove of the books she so loved. From there, she went to the very competitive Hunter College High School, the girls school for New York City’s best and brightest. She matriculated at Hunter College, a women’s college, where she earned a BA in music, then went on to study at New York University where she earned a Master of Music Education. Her thesis was on converting medieval German music to modern notation, German being the fourth language Hazel could read and write after English, Latin and French. All this accomplished by the daughter of West Indian immigrants during World War II. ​ Piano was the core of Hazel’s life from an early age. She studied with David Johnson and played in his orchestra, a group presenting classical music in New York City’s African-American communities in the 1930’s and ‘40s. As a teen, Hazel was both an organist and choir member at the Church of the Crucifixion. She told of performing when the church moved to its present location at West 149th Street and Convent Avenue in 1937, an event chronicled by the New York Times. During the Depression, a teenaged Hazel bartered music lessons for younger students to finance her own lessons. Hazel shared her passion throughout New York City via solo recitals and eventually teaching at Junior High School 136. On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1952, Hazel married Martin Luther Markham, a former Merchant Marine and Navy man from Panama. Together they moved to Roosevelt, NY in 1956. Hazel and Martin shared a love of family and baseball, she an avid Brooklyn Dodgers fan and he a Giant’s fan. They loved to dance and each had a sharp sense of humor. Hazel and Martin remained together for 34 years until his death in 1986. In Roosevelt, music remained a key component of Hazel’s life. She served as the church organist for several local churches, including Memorial Presbyterian Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church and Church of the Transfiguration, Freeport. She played for school functions, meetings, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts events, able to sight read and easily to transpose into any key, making her an exceptional accompanist. Hazel gave private music lessons to numerous children in the Roosevelt community until the 1970s when multiple sclerosis began interfering with her hands. MS was no match for Hazel’s personality and character. She birthed and raised three children—Maria, Daniel and Patricia—and took an active role in the lives of her grandchildren from her husband’s first marriage and of her children’s many friends. Scholastic achievement, leadership and integrity were core tenets Hazel and Martin taught their children and lived out in their community. Hazel signed anti-poll tax and anti-lynching petitions and supported creation of the American Federation of Teachers when doing so could have labeled her a “communist” and possibly cost her the opportunity to teach in public schools. She told of the Japanese who were stripped of their property and thrown into camps during World War II. She pointed out that women only received the right to vote the year before she was born and that the Equal Rights Amendment, introduced the year of her birth, still is not part of the U.S. Constitution. When MS affected her eyesight, Hazel obtained audiobooks from the National Library for the Blind and Disabled, determined to continue her pursuit of knowledge and the world around her. Hazel spent the final 15 years of her life at the Nassau Extended Care Facility in Hempstead, NY, no longer able to live on her own and requiring care beyond what her family was able to provide. Preceded in death by her granddaughter, Robin Carter, and by her son, Daniel Markham, Hazel passed shortly after breakfast and conversation with the nursing home staff on April 4, 2017. Just shy of her 96th birthday, she didn’t quite make her goal of living to 100 years, but she went quietly, exactly as she always said she wanted to go. Hazel is survived by daughter, Maria Thompson and daughter and son-in-law, Patricia and Bernard Woodside; her bonus children—Ruth and James Barton, Ana and Winston Barrett, and Luis and Jerri Markham; eleven grandchildren—Leslie Barton, Lori Barton, David Barton, Yvette Barton, Hope Barrett, Marcia Barrett, Leona Thompson, Bernard Woodside, Karyn Franklin, Trevor Woodside and Phillip Woodside; twelve great-grandchildren, four great-great-grandchildren, nieces and nephew, Annette Larrier and Stanley and Tammy Larrier, and many cousins. Hazel’s legacy to her family, students, and friends is that life’s challenges are an opportunity to learn and grow one’s faith, inner strength and character.