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Wednesday, January 24, 2007 -11:00AM- 
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400 Auburn Avenue, Northeast Atlanta Georgia 
The Reverend Dr. Raphael G Warnock, Senior Pastor The Reverend Dr. Dwight D. Andrews, Officiating 
 
 Pioneering travel agent. entrepreneur, educator, fashion designer, columnist, international bridge builder, inspirational mother and Renaissance woman, Freddye Scarborough Henderson departed this life on January 19, 2007 surrounded by her loving family. Born in Franklinton, Louisiana on February 18, 1917 to an educator-minister father and a homemaker mother, Freddye Scarborough was the seventh of eight children . She played piano in various churches on Sunday to pay her way through college, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southern University in 1937 at age 20. She was the first African American to study fashion merchandising at the Traphagen School of Fashion at New York University, where she received a Masters Degree. From an early age, Freddye challenged the barriers ofsegregation and actively worked in her own ways to seek full equality for African Americans. Some of the challenges faced by her family in 1930's Louisiana are recorded in The Star Creek Papers by Horace Mann Bond and Julia Bond, and edited by Adam 
Fairclough. 
This beautiful, vivacious and determined young woman caught the eye of Jacob R. Henderson, a South Carolina State College football star and Atlanta University MBA, and they married in Atlanta on July 4, 1941 . This loving partnership lasted 56 years until Jake's death in 1997. This partnership produced four loving children. Carole, Jacob Jr., Gaynelle and Shirley. 
Freddye's exceptional talent and credentials prompted Spelman College President, Florence Read , to invite her to teach Home Economics, Textiles, Fashion Design, Applied Art and Personality Development at Spelman where she worked for 11 years. In 1949, at the suggestion of Mrs. Mary Mcleod Bethune of the National Council of Negro Women, Freddye and otherAfrican Americans designers traveled to New York to display their custom designed dresses. The occasion received national attention, introduced the New York fashion industry to African American talent and led Freddye and others to found the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers (NAFAD), the professional organization for African American fashion designers. Under her leadership as its first President, NAFADstaged the first majorAfrican American fashion show at the WaldorfAstoria Hotel in New York in 1953. Madame Henri Bonet, wife ofthe French Ambassador to the United States, was so impressed with the fashion show that she invited Freddye and a NAFAD delegation to Franee for the fall fashion shows of Christian Dior andChaneIin Paris, of Hardy Aimes in London, and the Fontana Sisters in Rome. "Utterly fabulous!" is how Freddye described her European sojourn which included Paris cafes, art 
 
 galleries and cultural sites. That experience prompted Freddye to remark that if more African Americans knew how well received they would be in Europe and how easy it was to travel overseas, she was sure that many would travel abroad. Back in Atlanta weeks later, Freddye wrote in her diary, "the farther one travels from home (the American deep South, that is), the greater the feeling of integration into first class citizenship. For the first time, I tasted freedom . I was free and I knew I had to open the door of freedom to others." 
This experience led Freddye and Jake Henderson to found Henderson Travel Service (HTS), the first full service African American travel agency in the U.S., in 1955,thesameyearthatRosa Parks refused to give up herseatonthe bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The goal of Henderson Travel Service was to expose African American travelers to the freedoms abroad that they could not enjoy at home and to introduce them to the people, cultures and places of the wor1d. "Education through Exposure" became their motto and cuttural tours to Africa became their speciatty. HTS became the first African American wholesale tour operator for Pan American, UTA, Air France, Air Afrique, East Afrrcan Airways, Iberia, Lufthansa and BOAC.The agency was twice awarded the Africa Trophy for excellence in the promotion of tourism to Africa by the American Society of Travel Agents. In 1957, they broke new ground by taking the first group of African American tourists to celebrate Ghana's independence. Henderson Travel Service introduced the concept of post-convention, international tours for African American professional and social organizations, including the National Medical Association, National Dental Association, churches, fraternities and sororities. In addition to being a wife, mother,professor and businesswoman, Freddye found time to be awriter. She wrote a syndicated column for the Associated Negro Press on fashion design and later, a column on travel that for ten years appeared in 126 newspapers in the United States and Africa. 
In 1964, Freddye arranged the trip of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his 
delegation to Oslo, Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and, at his request, 
accompanied them as a member of his delegation. Ten years later, following President Richard Nixon's trip to open U.S. relations with China, she was received by Premier Chou En Lai,in the Great Hall of China. Because of her pioneering in African travel, she was invited to be a member of the official delegation sent to China by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Her years of building international tourism and cultural understanding made her the recipient in 1972 and 1974 of the coveted Rosenbluth Award, the highest award given forexcellenceoftheAmerican SocietyofTraveiAgents. She and her son, Jake Jr. were the first African Americans to achieve the Certified Travel Counsel 
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 designation by the Institute for Certified Travel Agents. In 1973 and 1974, Henderson Travel Service was the first travel service company to be listed among the Black Enterprise list of Top 100 Black Businesses. In 1989, HTS began providing tourism development and consulting services to U.S. municipalities and African and Caribbean countries. Perhaps Freddye's greatest honor was to have been named "Queen Mother of Travel and Tours.. by the government of Ghana in an elaborate ceremony in Koforidua, Ghana in 1999. During the ceremony, she was received by paramount chiefs decked in ceremonial gold and thousands of Ghanaian citizens.Today, Henderson Travel Service is operated by her daughter, Gaynelle Henderson-Bailey, in Silver Spring, Maryland. 
Freddye Henderson was a faithful member of First Congregational Church for over 60 years, and was a member of other organizations such as the Links, Inc, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Jack and Jill ofAmerica and the Moles. Freddye Scarborough Henderson was truly a visionary and a renaissance woman. She was a remarkable lady who will be remembered by people around the wortd for her style and grace; her pioneering work in international travel and tourism; her tireless efforts to reconnect those ofAfrican descent with the motherland; her commitment to improve her local community; and as a loving and caring wife, mother, sister, grandmother and family matriarch. Her life will serve as an example of courage, dignity, service and perseverance for generations to come. 
She is survived by her sister, Mrs. Johnnie Swanigan; her children, Carole Henderson Tyson, Jake Henderson, Jr. and his wife, Solange Melendez Henderson, Gaynelle Henderson-Bailey and her husband, Lance Bailey, Shirtey Henderson Coleman and her husband, and Weldon Coleman; her grandchildren, John Tyson, Jr., lman Tyson, Chaka Long and his wife, Nayamka Long, Kwame Bailey and his wife, Shana Bailey, Patrick Coleman, Simone Coleman, David H. Howard, and Sidney Darryl Howard; great-grandchildren, Marley Long, Elijah Bailey and Ava Bailey; many nephews and nieces, other relatives and longstanding friends. Her physical body will rest with her husband, Jake, in South-View Cemetery in Atlanta. Her spirit will join her husband in the eternal kingdom . 
 
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PRELUDE ......................................... ......................... Trey Clegg, Organist 
PROCESSIONAL ............................... "When the Saints Go Marching In" 
WELCOME AND INVOCATION ................. The Reverend Elizabeth Clement 
HYMN OF AFFIRMATION #508 ............ .. ................................. Congregation 
"Blessed Assurance,, 
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 
The Old Testament, Psalm 27 .......................................... Chaka A. Long 
The Old Testament. Proverbs 31: 10-31 ......... ............. . Patrick Coleman 
The New Testament, John 14:1-15 .................................. John Tyson, Jr. 
PASTORAL PRAYER ................... The Reverend Elizabeth Mitchell Clement 
MUSICAL SELECTION: 
"All Thy Paths are Joy and Peace" .... Alexander Jackson Scarborough Omolara Williams and Marva Shelton, Vocalists 
TRIBUTES: The Reverend Dr. Norman M. Rates The Honorable Andrew Young 
The Honorable Shirley Franklin, Mayor ofAtlanta 
A REMEMBRANCE FROM THE FAMILY ......... Jacob Robert Henderson, Jr. 
ul Trust Him Just The Same" .............................. Jean Carne, Vocalist "Gifts ofThe Spirit" ................................... Alton Scarborough, Vocalist 
A MEDLEY OF SPIRITUAL SONGS .......... The Reverend Dr. Marvin Morgan 
Harmonica 
EULOGY .................................. .. ... .......... The Reverend Dr. DwightAndrews 
Pastor, First Congregational Church 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
MUSICAL SELECTION ........................................................... uLovely Day" Alton Scarborough. Vocalist 
RECESSIONAL ....................................................................... The Organist 
The Benediction will be given at the Interment 
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South-View Cemetery 1990 Jonesboro Road, Southeast 
Atlanta, Georgia 
Following the Interment the Repast will take place at the Hickman Student Center, Morris Brown College at Sunset Avenue and M. L. King, Jr. Drive, Atlanta, Georgia. 
 
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It may sound strange to the ear, but certainly not to the heart, that in her final days on earth, our mother demonstrated all that she had taught us over the years. Month after month, weekafterweekandfinally, day after day, we gathered around to support her as she continued to teach us in her own way. During these days, though incapacitated, she taught us a deeper level of love, service, devotion, honesty, acceptance, grace, elegance, joy, sorrow, friendship, family, 
forgiveness, and beauty. For our part, we gave our all, learning new things about 
each other, growing still more, more deeply, more broadly, better. It is now with sorrow that we experience the loss of our mother; and it is with immense joy that we contemplate the life she gave each of us and the extraordinary 
experiences therein. 
 
 William D. Henderson Lance Bailey John D. Tyson, Jr. lman M. Tyson 
 
John D. Tyson, Sr. Weldon Coleman Chaka A. Long KwameBailey 
 
Elton Harrison Ambassador Mansour Seck 
 
Moses Manania Tom Houck 
 
Women of First Congregational Church 
 
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Johnnie Scarborough Swanigan 
 
Solange Melendez Henderson 
 
Nayamka Long 
 
Shana Bailey 
 
Lucia Bacote 
 
Christine King Farris 
 
Xemona Clayton Brady 
 
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Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Africa Travel Association Atlanta Chapter of Links, Inc. Jack and Jill ofAmerica Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change Interdenominational Theological Seminary 
 
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The Family of Freddye Scarborough Henderson acknowledges, with heartfelt 
gratefulness, the many expressions of love, support and condolences from friends and neighbors around the wortd . These have contributed significantly to sustaining us during recent periods of both sorrow and joy. We express our special appreciation to Mrs. Alma Jackson for her six years of love and dedicated service to Jacob and Freddye Henderson, and to Ms. Mary Offei Myers for her four and a half years of devotion and care to Freddye Henderson. 
We extend a special thanks to The Reverend Dr. Raphael G Warnock and the Ebenezer Baptist Church family. 
 
 In conformance with her request, the family of Freddye Scarborough Henderson requests that special contributions be made to the 
Interdenominational Theological Center, 700 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, S. W., Atlanta, Georgia 30314 and the.Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Center for Non-Violent Social Change, 449 Auburn Avenue, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30312 
MURRAY  BROTHERS 
FUNERAL HOME, INC. 404349-3000 
1199 Utoy Springs Road, Southwest 
(<W1frr r;f CruciXU Rd. near 1-285} 
Atlanta,. Georgia 30331