Ruth Jean Bowen ( Baskerville, later Bryant or Bowen-Bryant; September 13, 1924 – April 21, 2009) was the first black female

talent agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sport ...

and the president of Queen Booking Corporation, the largest Black-owned entertainment and talent agency in the world. It represented many of the United States' top African-American performers.

Early life and education

Ruth Jean Baskerville was born to Marion Baskerville and Claude Carlton on September 13, 1924, in

Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...

. Her mother was African-American and French and her father was an English-born Irishman. She grew up with three older white half-sisters and her brother James Edward Goode. She attended Westmoreland Elementary School and Langston High School in Danville before moving with her family to Brooklyn, New York, where she attended

Girls' High School Girls High School is a historically and architecturally notable public secondary school building located at 475 Nostrand Avenue in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It was built in 1886.''Brooklyn: a soup-to-nuts g ...

. She studied at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

for two years before getting married.

Career

After marrying in 1944, she initially gained hands-on experience in the entertainment industry by handling her husband Billy Bowen's business affairs. A singer, he was one of the original members of

The Ink Spots The Ink Spots were an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style presaged the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely a ...

, and toured with them around the country in the 1940s and 1950s. Bowen really started her career via an introduction to singer

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...

; there are two versions of their first meeting. According to one source, while on tour with her husband and the Ink Spots in Pittsburgh, Bowen spotted Washington's tour bus and her husband introduced them. Another story is that "Major Robinson, a nationally syndicated columnist, introduced Bowen to Dinah Washington in 1945." Both sources seem to agree, however, that this initial meeting is what led to Bowen becoming Washington's personal publicist and manager. While working with Washington and her booking agent, Joe Glaser, Bowen learned a great deal about the entertainment industry in general, and about booking artists more specifically. Using

David Dinkins David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office. Before enterin ...

as her lawyer (he was later elected as mayor of New York City), Bowen got her booking license from the State of New York. Together with Washington, she started a booking agency, Queen Artists, in 1959. By 1964, after the death of Washington, Bowen renamed her company as the Queen Booking Corporation. She handled all types of talent, from "...individual singers to soul-rock groups to gospel choirs to comedians." QBC represented, among others,

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

, the

Isley Brothers Isley is an English surname. The name can also be used as an anglicized variant for the German surnames Eisele and Eisler. Notable people with the surname include: *The Isley Brothers, American musical group **Ernie Isley (born 1952), American mus ...

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboards Hot 100 pop singles cha ...

The Four Tops ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Kool and the Gang Kool & the Gang is an American R&B/soul/ funk band formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1964 by brothers Robert "Kool" Bell and Ronald Bell, with Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas, Robert "Spike" Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown, and Ricky West. ...

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack (; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guit ...

, and

Teddy Pendergrass Theodore DeReese Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010) was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. He was born in Kingstree, South Carolina. Pendergrass spent most of his life in the Philadelphia area, and initially rose to musi ...

.Obituary
washingtondcjazznetwork.ning.com. Accessed February 20, 2024.

Personal life

Ruth Bowen married William "Billy" Bowen, one of the original members of

, in 1944. They were married until his death in 1982. She married again, to Clarence "Billy" Bryant. Bowen died at the age of 84 on April 21, 2009, in New York City after battling brain cancer. When she died, she was survived by Bryant, her brother James Edward Goode, and sister-in-law Jean.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Ruth 1924 births 2009 deaths American talent agents Businesspeople from Virginia Businesspeople from Brooklyn New York University alumni People from Danville, Virginia Girls' High School alumni African-American women in business 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century African-American women Deaths from brain cancer in New York (state) American people of French descent American people of Irish descent American people of English descent