Ida Mae Cullen

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Research record

Ida Mae Cullen · Staged record CTL-P-1383 · Entity Depth Program · 674 words · Evidence grade: VERIFIED (canonical master, carried unchanged) · Researched 2026-10-25

Ida Mae Cullen is documented in the historical record under two married names and one maiden name, and the Amistad Research Center's authority record — the source that verifies this entry — untangles them at the top: Ida Cullen Cooper, born Ida Mae Roberson, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on January 3, 1903. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, graduated from Lincoln High School there in 1921, married Robert Lee Parker at eighteen, and had a daughter, Norma, the following year. In about 1937 she moved to New York City, where she worked as secretary to her future father-in-law, the Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, at Salem Methodist Church, until 1940. On September 27, 1940, she married the poet Countee Cullen.

The marriage lasted five and a half years. Countee Cullen — by 1940 already the most celebrated poet of the Harlem Renaissance's first generation — died on January 9, 1946, and Ida Cullen spent the rest of her long life as the steward of his name. The Amistad record lists the stewardship as institutions, and they are the substance of this entry. She founded the Countee Cullen Foundation in 1950 to preserve and promote his legacy. Through her efforts the 136th Street Branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem was renamed for Countee Cullen — the Amistad record dates the renaming to 1959, while the New York City LGBTQ Historic Sites Project dates it to September 1951 and calls it the first NYPL branch named for an African American; the variance is flagged in this batch's index rather than resolved here, and the renaming itself is not in dispute. She was likewise instrumental in the renaming of P.S. 194 in Harlem for the poet — the Amistad record gives 1964 — and the first annual Countee Cullen Memorial Celebration was held on May 30, 1981. A Countee Cullen Elementary School was dedicated in Chicago in 1972. And it was Ida Cullen who donated Countee Cullen's papers to the Amistad Research Center — which is why Amistad holds them, and why the authority record behind this entry exists at all.

Her own life continued past the stewardship's founding acts. She married Robert Cooper on August 5, 1951, and was widowed a second time when he died on April 2, 1966. She co-founded the Afro-Arts Bazaar with Etta Moten Barnett and Estelle Massey Osborne — a venture placing her in the company of two other Chicago-linked Black cultural institution-builders, a connection this graph's Chicago frame is built to notice. The Amistad record describes her in the archive's own terms as a collector of African American art and a keeper of the Cullen legacy — the collection agency of her life's second act. She died in New York on May 3, 1986.

In the CultureTechLens graph, Ida Mae Cullen's two edges link her to Once Upon a Time in Harlem as a filmed party guest of 1972 and to the Harlem Renaissance Reunion Party event record of the same year — graph links stated here as such; she was sixty-nine at that filming and a decade into the foundation's work. The documented life stands on the Amistad record: Tulsa-born, Kansas City-raised, secretary at Salem Methodist, wife and then widow of Countee Cullen, and for thirty-six years the founder, fundraiser, and donor who converted a poet's posthumous reputation into a foundation, a library name, a school name, and a research archive. Archives remember poets; this record remembers the person who made sure of it. A note on her name belongs in the record, because researchers will meet her under several: the Amistad authority record files her as Ida Cullen Cooper, from her second marriage; she is Ida Mae Cullen in this graph, under the styling attached to the Harlem institutions she built and to the Cullen name she spent her life maintaining; and she was born Ida Mae Roberson, the maiden name the authority record preserves. All three forms are the same woman, and the batch index notes the variance so the merge does not split her.

Sources for this record

• Ida Cullen Cooper — Agent Record — Amistad Research Center (Tulane University) finding aids
  Claims supported: Master verification source: Ida Cullen Cooper, born Ida Mae Roberson, Tulsa, Oklahoma, January 3, 1903; married Countee Cullen September 27, 1940; he died January 9, 1946; founded the Countee Cullen Foundation in 1950; the 136th Street Branch Library was renamed for Countee Cullen (dated 1959 in this record); died May 3, 1986, in New York City.
• Ida Cullen Cooper — Biographical Record — Amistad Research Center (Tulane University) finding aids
  Claims supported: Graduated Lincoln High School, Kansas City, 1921; first marriage to Robert Lee Parker, daughter Norma born 1922; moved to New York about 1937; secretary to Rev. F. A. Cullen at Salem Methodist Church until 1940; married Robert Cooper August 5, 1951 (he died April 2, 1966); P.S. 194 renamed 1964; Countee Cullen Elementary School dedicated in Chicago 1972; First Annual Countee Cullen Memorial Celebration, May 30, 1981; co-founder of the Afro-Arts Bazaar with Etta Moten Barnett and Estelle Massey Osborne; donated Countee Cullen's papers to the Amistad Research Center.
• Countee Cullen Branch, New York Public Library — NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project
  Claims supported: The 136th Street Branch, built 1941, was renamed for Countee Cullen in September 1951 per this record — the first NYPL branch named for an African American; a date variance against the Amistad record's 1959, flagged in the batch index; Alain Locke spoke at the branch's 1942 dedication.

Citations

Published October 25, 2026, from the head-verified staged record in the Entity Depth Program (Batches 004–008). Source: CultureTechLens