Julia Perry

PERRY’S EARLY LIFE

Written By: Dr. Yvonne Giles, Lexington Historian
November 2021

Nearly one hundred years ago, Julia Amanda Perry made her first appearance in Lexington in 1924. She was the fifth child born to Dr. Abraham and Mrs. America Heath Perry. Clara, America and Lucie were her older siblings. The youngest sister, Lettie Alycia, would be born five years later.

Julia was blessed with an extended family that included her grandmother Clara Perry, two great-uncles, Leon and William and their wives, Birdie and Ella Taylor. They lived in town, within four blocks of the family’s home on Vertner, now Eastern Avenue. Aunt Lucie and Archie Taylor, her husband lived in Dayton, Ohio but most certainly traveled by train to see her family.

With the number of adults around, especially Grandmother Clara, there would be no lack of support for this young family. African American family tradition dictates that older members offer guidance and helping hands to the younger. Older siblings were directed – sometimes under dire warning if they failed – to ‘watch out’ for the youngest. In turn they knew elder members would need care toward the end of their lives.

We find the Taylor/Perry families in East Lexington, one of the rapidly developing residential areas of the city. According to census data, 7,171 people, an increase of 133%, had moved to Lexington following Emancipation in 1865.  The demand for lots on which to build is not unlike the development of property in this day and time. Owners of large acreage subdivided their land to sell to African Americans who wanted to own their homes. Gunntown, Goodloetown and Kinkeadtown were subdivisions in which new buildings appeared. 

Grandmother Clara, unlike most, bought two lots in 1880 in Gunntown and built their two-story house so that it was surrounded by a large yard.  It remained in the family until 1934 and still stands. She was married to Abraham Perry, a Thoroughbred jockey, turned trainer. He worked with notable breeders not only here in Kentucky but also in New York, Maryland, and Illinois. He began training Thoroughbreds in 1875 in his native Woodford County. In 1885, the years of perfecting his skill, paid off. The Thoroughbred Joe Cotton won the Kentucky, Tennessee, Coney Island derby races and nine other handicap and stakes races in the U.S. To cap his career, he became an owner of Thoroughbreds and opened his own training stable. His 1908 obituary stated, ‘he was one of the most successful race horse trainers in Kentucky as well as one of the most substantial Negro citizens of Lexington.’ 

The Kentucky Association racetrack had been established in 1823 in East Lexington. The old track stood on sixty-five acres at the junction of Race and Fifth streets. Abraham was one of five trainers who lived near the track. Fellow trainer, Edward Dudley Brown and his family, lived two doors from Perry. Brown would become the first African American trainer inducted into the National Racing Museum Hall of Fame in 1984. Raleigh Colston, Sr., trainer for Chinn and Forsythe, lived on East Second Street. Lee Christy, trainer for J. B. Harper, lived on Chestnut Street. Courtney Mathews, trainer for the McDowell Stable at Ashland Estate, lived on Breckinridge. All their homes still stand; Mathews home is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Clara managed her husband’s earnings to maintain their home and provide for the education of their children. She paid the tuition for their son and daughter to attend Chandler Normal School. It had been opened in 1872 for African Americans by the American Missionary Association.  Upon graduation in 1903, Abraham attended Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee. An announcement in the paper stated that Abraham was the youngest among three hundred graduates and because of his education at Chandler had achieved high marks on his medical exam. He opened his practice in 1908 at his family home. Lucie, after graduating, attended Fisk University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned a degree in music and became a music instructor. She married Archie Taylor, a physician, in 1914. The next year Abraham married America Heath, a nurse, in Columbus, Ohio.

Julia and her siblings may not have been born with silver spoons in their mouths, but they did have opportunities not available to most African Americans. Professionally, economically, socially and culturally, the Perry family would be considered upper-middle-class.

Click the image to watch Connect: The Life & Music of Julia Perry featuring local historian Dr. Yvonne Giles, Whit Whitaker, Executive Director of the Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center, and musicologist Dr. Kendra Preston Leonard who has created a Julia Perry Working Group online with resources about Julia Perry’s music, her scores and her life.