Making Dreams Come True : Because of One Woman, Seven Girls Will Be Debs

When Zenola Maxie was a little girl in the South and the Midwest, it always bothered her that only the daughters of the wealthy high society--black or white--were presented in traditional debutante balls.

It just didn’t seem fair, she said, that girls--especially black girls--would be excluded from dressing up in white bouffant dresses and feeling like Cinderella for one night because their fathers were middle-class laborers.

“I always told myself that if I ever could get someplace I was going to try to present middle-class little girls to society like the other organizations were doing,” Maxie said.

In 1964, the diminutive, strong-willed woman’s dream came true when Maxie, in conjunction with the local chapter of the National Assn. of Negro Business & Professional Women’s Clubs, started the first Cotillion Spectacular Ball. That year, more than 25 black 16- and 17-year-old girls, who would probably not have qualified for other debutante balls, participated.

The black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha had long organized debutante balls in cities throughout the United States, and has been holding parties for San Diego’s black girls since 1964. But Maxie thought not enough black girls were able to participate.

“Only the daughters of lawyers and doctors could be presented through those debutante balls,” said Maxie, who has owned La Min’s House of Beauty and Charm in Southeast San Diego for 25 years. “And at that time you could count the number of black lawyers and doctors in San Diego on one hand.”

Maxie and the women’s club have set out, in each of the last 22 years to find teen-age girls from Southeast San Diego who are not necessarily “rich or straight-A students,” but “good, moral people.”

“There is no reason that a poor child can’t participate in a thing like this,” Maxie said at her shop on Imperial Avenue. For Maxie and the 30 other businesswomen in the Negro Business & Professional Women’s Club, the cotillion offers not only a chance to dress up and waltz with their fathers, but also gives the girls a taste of success and connections for the future.

“We try to put them in contact with good role models . . . businesswomen,” said Ethel M. Perkins, president of the club’s local chapter. “We try to give them a chance.”

The cotillion is also an effective way to raise money for charities and scholarships. The $2,000 the women hope to raise from this year’s ball will be given to needy black college students.

Seven girls will be presented at the 22nd Annual Cotillion Spectacular Ball at the Sheraton Harbor Island hotel Jan. 25. All seven--Tamela Cross, 15; Rockell Simmons, 15; Kimberly Manns, 16; Robin Edmonds, 15; Madelin Jordon, 16; Monique Walker, 17, and Twilonda Wilson, 16--have gone through a battery of charm and beauty classes, including waltz lessons, at Maxie’s shop.

The classes are free for the debutantes and for those girls who want to participate but cannot afford the dresses, flowers and other paraphernalia necessary to be an official debutante. The women’s club will help with the finances, Perkins said.

“I teach them to walk tall, even if they’re not tall,” Maxie said. “A good attitude is an important thing.”

For the debutantes, the cotillion may just open doors to their future.

“I think it is a good experience,” said Robin Edmonds, a sophomore at the School of Creative and Performing Arts and an aspiring concert harp player. “I’m basically shy and I think this will help me.”

But it is Maxie who obviously enjoys the cotillion the most.

“Seeing those young ladies, with their white dresses on, and taking a bow to their parents . . . they are so beautiful,” she said.