RIP Ellis Marsalis, Sr.

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Well, I was wrong: LINK TO TIMES PICAYUNE STORY

Ellis L. Marsalis Sr., hotelier and activist
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
From staff reports

Ellis L. Marsalis Sr., a civil rights activist and businessman who through ownership of the Marsalis Motel in Jefferson Parish was for decades host to visiting African-American musicians and civil rights leaders, died Sunday at Ochsner Foundation Hospital. He was 96.

Mr. Marsalis was the patriarch of the internationally known Marsalis family of musicians, including his son, Ellis Jr., and grandsons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason.

Mr. Marsalis was born in Summit, Miss., and lived in New Orleans since 1921.

In 1936, he became the first African-American manager of an Esso (now Exxon) service station in Uptown New Orleans.

In 1943, Mr. Marsalis opened his motel and purchased property in the Shrewsbury community of Jefferson Parish. When he tried to register to vote, he was refused and escorted from the office. With assistance from the sheriff, he and several other African-American men founded the Boosters Club, which assisted black residents of Jefferson Parish in registering.

His 40-room motel, a converted chicken barn also known as Marsalis Mansion, stood on Shrewsbury Road near the Mississippi River. It featured a restaurant, lounge and swimming pool, and its guests included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and musicians such as Ray Charles.

But its business dwindled after civil rights legislation in the 1960s opened the doors of formerly all-white hotels and motels to black travelers. The motel closed in 1986 and was demolished in 1993.

Mr. Marsalis was a member of St. James AME Church and a founding member of St. James Methodist Church of Louisiana. He was a 32nd-degree member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and a former president of the Nationwide Hotel Association.

In 1999, his neighbors in the Shrewsbury community presented him with a plaque commemorating his life.

Besides his son, survivors include a daughter, Yvette M. Washington; seven grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

A funeral will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at D.W. Rhodes Funeral Home, 3933 Washington Ave. Visitation will be at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Providence Park.

Ellis L. Marsalis Sr.