Services were held last Friday for Adelia Andrews, at Bel-Vue Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles Calif. She was the mother of veteran musician and educator Reggie Andrews and one of the forces behind creation of the California African American Museum (CAAM).
Adelia transitioned on Aug. 7. She was 96 years old.
Andrews was born Nov. 7, 1914, in New Orleans, La., the only child of the Rev. Christopher Columbus and Adelia Beatty Smith. Her father, C.C. Smith, was a known force among the church community and died in 1922 when Adelia was only 8 years old. That sparked a move to Los Angeles by Adelia and her mother the following year.
In L.A., Andrews attended public schools and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1932 with a business major. Graduation was followed by various jobs in the secretarial field–stenographer, bookkeeper and office manager from 1933 until 1944.
She married Joseph Henry Andrews entered her life in 1943. He, like Adelia’s father, would find his calling in the church.
Andrews worked at the L.A. Urban League during the late 1940s.
In 1947, she and Joseph were among the 22 charter members of Bel-Vue Community Presbyterian Church founded under reverends St. Paul Epps and Jerome James.
In the early 1960s, Andrews began work with the State of California at the California Museum of Science and Industry (CMSI).
In 1973, she was commissioned to be exhibit director to coordinate all events and programs of the Bicentennial Black Achievement Exhibit, which opened in 1976. Her exhaustive work and contributions to the dynamic exhibit would be the impetus for her brainchild, the California African American Museum (CAAM), which she worked tirelessly to see come into fruition.
Andrews is survived by her two children, Yolanda and Reggie; cousins Walter Fielder, Roosevelt and Florence Beatty, and Jean; six grandchildren, Aisha, Nia, India, Dominique, Marla and Renon; 13 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.
