Willa Mae Blayton – Founder of Blayton Business College

Once upon a time in Black Entrepreneur History lived an African American woman named Willa Mae Blayton who became an educator and founded the Blayton Business College in Georgia.

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Willa Mae Blayton was born Willa Mae Daniels, the daughter of John Williams Daniels and Ada Jackson Daniels in Kilgore, Texas, the same birthplace of her parents. She had a great number of siblings, ten children altogether – seven boys and three daughters. She was the sixth child, born on July 23, 1895.^[1]

Education & Career

Willa Mae Blayton received a formal education from Langston University, gaining a degree in education. She also gained a Associates of Business from Morehouse in Atlanta, Georgia while also having studied in New York.

She taught school in Oklahoma and also in Atlanta, Georgia. She was cost accountant of Dietary Department at Atlanta University and also Book Keeping Instructor at Reid Business College along with accounting tutor for those who needed the extra assistance with schooling.

It was in 1946 that she founded the Blayton School of Accounting which is also known as Blayton Business College which offered two year courses in business administration such as:

• executive secretarial science
• clerical typing
• accounting

She was the president and director of the college with the goal of providing an education for students who may not have been able to or didn’t want to gain a full college course but desired to have a great education in those courses.^[2]

Marriage

She married Jesse Bee Blayton on December 28, 1920 in Logan, Oklahoma. He became a well-accomplished man and entrepreneur, founding the first African American radio station in the USA. They worked together as partners and became successes at the very same time.

They had two children Doris A. and Jesse Bee Blayton Jr.

Death

She passed away on January 31, 1982 and was buried in SouthView Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sources:

[1]Year: 1910; Census Place: Bear Creek, Logan, Oklahoma; Roll: T624_1259; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0118; FHL microfilm: 1375272

[2]The Atlanta Voice (Atlanta, Georgia) 15 Nov 1970, Sun Page 3