by Linda Dahl
Mary in the mid-1930s.
Mary listening to a playback at a recording session in 1948. (W. Eugene Smith Archive, Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona. Copyright © The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith, Courtesy Black Star, Inc., New York)
Mary at home, 1944.
Mary in performance at Café Society Downtown, one of the first fully integrated nightspots in New York, circa 1945.
Mary and members of her fan club at WNEW, where she had a weekly radio show, “The Mary Lou Williams Piano Workshop,” for much of 1945.
Mary at Child’s Paramount Theatre, with Oscar Pettiford, bass, and unidentified drummer, in 1948.
Mary’s jazz “salon” at 63 Hamilton Terrace, in 1945 or 1946. Left to right: Dizzy Gillespie, Mary, Tadd Dameron, Hank Jones, Milt Orent, Jack Teagarden’s girlfriend Dixie, Jack Teagarden. (Photograph by William P. Gottlieb. Copyright © William P. Gottlieb. From the Collection of The Library of Congress)
Mary with Melody Maker editor Max Jones in London, 1953.
At Chez Mary Lou, the old Perdido Club, in Paris, November 1954.
Paris, spring of 1953. The Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter is between a look-alike daughter and pianist Garland Wilson. Mary introduced Nica to Thelonious Monk during this time.
Saxophonist Don Byas, about 1938, as a member of the Clouds of Joy. Although in love with Mary, Byas would be fired from the band, partly for his alcohol-related physical abuse of her.
Trumpeter Harold “Shorty” Baker, Mary’s second husband, in the 1940s. Though they soon parted, they never divorced.
Mary with trombonist Jack Teagarden, her close friend, in 1946. Teagarden proposed marriage at least once, possibly twice. (Photograph by William P. Gottlieb. Copyright © William P. Gottlieb. From the Collection of The Library of Congress)
Lindsay Steele, a nonmusician who was Mary’s lover from 1948 until she left for Europe in late 1952.
Drummer Gérard “Dave” Pochonet, Mary’s lover in France in 1954, and friend later.
Artist David Stone Martin, Mary’s lover in the mid-1940s, and a lifelong friend.
Photograph taken in 1958 during the legendary “Great Day in Harlem” communal jazz photo shoot. Left to right: drummer Ronnie Free, singer Mose Allison, saxophonist Lester Young, Mary, saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Oscar Pettiford. (Photograph by Art Kane. Copyright © The Estate of Art Kane)
A rare instance of Mary photographed with her back to the piano. Note the “caged bird” and the religious icon behind her, her form-fitting dress yet formidably serious presence, her closed eyes but highly vulnerable expression. Taken in Mary’s apartment in 1958. (Photograph by Dennis Stock. Copyright © Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos, Inc.)
Mary and close friend Dizzy Gillespie in the spring of 1979, after she had moved to North Carolina.
Mary in her element: teaching children circa 1968.
Mary running her second thrift shop, circa 1965. The Bel Canto Foundation shop was uptown on Amsterdam Avenue.
Peter Francis O’Brien as a young seminarian, photographed just before he met Mary, in February 1964. (Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, with the permission of the Van Vechten Trust)
Mary in the mid-1970s, still happy with Father O’Brien, S.J.
Mary’s confessor, Father Anthony Woods, S.J.
Mary’s close friend the Franciscan Brother Mario (Grady Hancock), in the 1960s.
Mary kneeling at prayer in church in 1964.
(Copyright © Tom Caffrey/Globe Photos, Inc.)
The “jazz tree,” a work by Mary and David Stone Martin.
Mary teaching jazz as artist-in-residence at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, circa 1978.
Mary convalescing at Duke University Hospital after her major surgery in January 1980.
Mary performing at the Cookery Restaurant, New York, 1973. (Photograph by Ken Abé. Copyright © Ken Abé.)