A sample of Adeline Dolly Christian’s eventful life is captured by Sadie Feddoes in her column in the Amsterdam News in May 1962. Christian, president of the New York Urban League, was the hostess of the annual Frederick Douglass Awards Dinner. In many respects, she was as much a luminary as the coterie assembled that evening, including a special citation to George Steinbrenner. This was just one of many illustrious moments in her remarkable life and service, which ended on July 8, 2024.
Born Adeline Viola Lewis on April 8, 1929 in Newark, New Jersey, she was still very young when the family moved to the Bronx, New York. That was the beginning of her stays in the various boroughs, then to Pennsylvania and eventually to Maryland. Those movements would typify her association with several organizations and institutions, including the Coalition of 100 Black Women, National Urban Affairs Council, and New York City Commission on Human Rights, through which she served under two mayors.
But her most memorable achievements may have come during her tenure at the Urban League that began in 1971 when she was elected to the board of directors. Six years later, she was elected chair of the League and later the president. For several years, she was the director of civic affairs at the Sperry & Hutchinson Company, ideally positioned to facilitate the largess of funds to the agency. Many New Yorkers recall her presence at the annual Grambling-Morgan Football Classic at Yankee Stadium, managing the proceeds from the game to be distributed to compensate the contenders, and ensuring college scholarships were delivered to two students in each borough.
It was often said that she got her nickname from her resemblance to a doll, according to several community notables, to say nothing of her glamorous style that could have been influenced by the lyrics of “Hello, Dolly!” She heard the name so often that she soon legally adopted it. “Dolly was a great friend of my husband (Jan Van Meter), and I became friends with her after his passing. We had lots of fun talking by phone. She was great to speak with, funny, intelligent, and caring about things that matter. My husband adored her, and I did too, “ said friend Elena Sansalone.
An obituary posted by the Adeline Dolly Christian Memorial Fund noted that those who knew recognized “her strong personality, which was definitely not for the meek, but it is adored by many and will be remembered lovingly.”
She was predeceased by her husband, Al Christian, and several siblings. Left to cherish her memory are a host of nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews, great nieces and nephews, and other family members, as well as many good friends and neighbors. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to ChildFirst Services, Inc. to support Dolly Christian House, a residential program for foster youth in Pennsylvania that was named in her honor 20 years ago. Donation link: https://www.childfirstservices.org/donations/