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  Bonita Titus Alford October 30, 2010 at 2:04pm

  Emily, Thanks for being interested in those Cowens. I was pretty much raised in North Dallas projects but the name was mentioned all the time when we were growing up. It's so funny now but it wasn't funny back then that if I did anything wrong in school, my mother and all the aunts Knew about it before I got home. The same for Gilda (Medina).
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  Bonita Titus Alford October 30, 2010 at 1:59pm

  Galen, Thanks for the research you did on my Uncle Herbert! I had the opportunity to get to know him when he moved back to Dallas in the late 80's. His home held memorabilia from all the countries he had visited. He went to be with the Lord in 1993. I was quite impressed when several members of groups that he had performed with got together and performed at his home going celebration. (The ones who played were all elderly.)
  
  Of the ten siblings in the Cowens clan (five boys and five girls) three of the boys (Herbert, Alvis and Carton) were pretty successful musicians. Carton's picture is somewhere among the pictures on this website. The caption on the picture reads, "One of the Cowens". His career stopped after WW2 because he was shell shocked. One fled racism in Texas for Canada and never came back. The baby of the bunch was Edward Lavon Cowens who was the principal of B.F. Darrell when I attended. Of the five sisters, three became nurses. One became a seamstress. She at one time made uniforms for BTW Majorettes. One (Aunt Beatress)moved to New York. I'm not sure how but I inherited her miniature tea sets and other stuff.
  
  I am proud of the family that I was born into. I admire them for for living their dreams. They were far from perfect but there must have been something on the inside that made them want to leave home at very young ages to do what they did.
  
  So thats their story and I'm sticking to it. Have I bored you enough?
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  Emily Ann Johnson October 25, 2010 at 11:00pm

  Bonita, I agree with Galen...you have to be mighty proud of
  your very talented family. I am looking forward to learning
  more about these talented and groundbreaking Cowens.
  Maybe Aunt Illa could add even more information.
  
  Take care!
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  Galen Ollison October 25, 2010 at 9:12pm

  WOW Bonita! It seems Uncle Alvis was FIRST in the BTW family in the 20th Century to bring big screen stardom to the Booker T. Washington legacy! The family must be and must have been "mighty proud". Seems I recall there was another famous family member of yours who was a drummer - Uncle Herbert. Didn't you show me his picture sitting at the drums?
  I found this online -- is this one of your famous family?Herbert Cowans Section in the book "Hot jazz: from Harlem to Storyville"