Mae Robinson

The database records a Mae Robinson active on Broadway between 1927 and 1930, with credits including Rogues and Vagabonds and the musical White Eagle. The external biographical record documents a separate individual, Edna Mae Robinson, born Edna Mae Holly on September 4, 1915, in Miami, Florida, whose Broadway activity began in 1953. Because the verified database credits and the external biography cannot be reconciled as belonging to the same person, the following article is written solely about Edna Mae Robinson, using only the information contained in the external source.

Edna Mae Robinson was an American dancer, actress, and activist born on September 4, 1915, in Miami, Florida. She was descended from a prominent family; her great-grandfather was the Rt. Rev. James Theodore Holly, the first Black man consecrated as an Episcopal Bishop. After the death of her parents, Robinson moved to New York at the age of five to live with her aunt. She later attended Hunter College and began her performance career dancing in nightclubs, including the Cotton Club and the Mimo Club. At the Cotton Club she became known for dancing atop an enormous drum. She also toured Europe as a dancer with Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.

Robinson made her Broadway debut in 1953 in an all-black production of Born Yesterday. Despite positive reviews, the production closed after five days. She subsequently accompanied the cast on a USO tour of Japan and Europe. In 1956, she appeared as a guest artist at Detroit producer Ziggy Johnson's annual dance school graduation party at the Latin Quarter.

Beyond the stage, Robinson maintained a public profile through her marriage to boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, whom she had first met in 1940 when he was still known as Walker Smith Jr. The two married on May 29, 1944, after a long courtship. Robinson appeared on the first cover of Jet magazine in 1951, wearing a mink coat valued at $10,000 that Sugar Ray had given her as a birthday gift. She was also featured in Ebony magazine. The couple owned several businesses together, among them Edna Mae's Lingerie Shop and Sugar Ray's Cafe. Robinson experienced four miscarriages before the birth of their son, Ray Robinson Jr., in 1949. She and Sugar Ray separated in 1960 and divorced in 1962. Their separation agreement provided her with $200 per week, fringe benefits, and a percentage of any annual income Sugar Ray earned over $60,000. By 1989, Robinson stated that her divorce settlement had amounted to just over $23,000, owing to Sugar Ray's financial difficulties with bad investments and the IRS. In 1969, Sugar Ray attempted to have their marriage declared void on the grounds that her divorce from a previous husband had been fraudulent; his case was dismissed.

Following her divorce, Robinson worked as a medical assistant and obtained a cosmetology license. She later became an exercise instructor, teaching aerobics classes for senior citizens. In 1984, she served as a technical consultant on Francis Ford Coppola's film The Cotton Club. In the early 1960s, while residing in Riverdale, she served as chairman of Intergroup, an organization dedicated to housing integration. Robinson was also active in Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP, and she supported multiple charitable organizations. After Sugar Ray's death in 1989, she began work on a memoir reflecting on their marriage.

Robinson died on May 2, 2002, in New York, from complications of Alzheimer's disease, at the age of 86. She was survived by her son and five grandchildren.