Queen Ester Coward
In April 1950 the census taker found Queen Ester Coward, 27, on Fairfield Avenue in Avon Park’s Black neighborhood, keeping a beauty shop of her own — one of five Black-owned businesses the census records in the whole town — with her husband Glover D. Coward, 41, born in North Carolina, a taxi driver.[census-1950-ed-28-8]
Five years later she was leading the neighborhood’s approach to city hall. When Avon Park’s first Black policeman told his story in 1995, he said the town’s Black churches had organized as the Progressive Civic Club, “headed by Queen Coward,” and had gone to a city council meeting to ask for a liaison officer for the Black community; Mayor E. A. DeLaney put the request back to the club, which chose Fred Conner, appointed in April 1955.[newssun-conner-1995]
A woman who kept a shop on Fairfield Avenue and, four years after the council annulled her precinct’s votes, led its churches into the council chamber with a request and came out with an appointment — that is a figure the town’s history has not had, and this document is the first to give her one.
Who she probably was
A Queen E. Coward, 22 July 1925 – 14 August 2000, lies at Lakeview Memorial Gardens, Avon Park, under the inscription “Beloved Mother and Grandmother.”[findagrave-coward] The name and place fit; the birth year is two or three years later than the census age implies, which is within the ordinary run of census error but keeps this a candidate rather than a certainty. No grave has been found for Glover Coward.
When the Progressive Civic Club formed, who else was in it, and what else it did are not recorded, nor are her shop’s name, how long it ran, her family, or whether she was among the 397 voters of Voting Place No. 2 in 1951.
Queen Coward Avenue
Her legacy is memorialized in the city’s geography. Queen Coward Avenue is located in the Southside neighborhood within Avon Park’s designated Southside Redevelopment Area. The street serves as a site for community gatherings; in 2016, the city received a request to temporarily close Queen Coward Avenue for a local event honoring Ms. Queen Coward’s role in inspiring the youth of Avon Park.[avon-park-city-council-2016] This municipal recognition solidifies the identification of the civic leader with the woman buried at Lakeview Memorial Gardens.
References
- census-1950-ed-28-8 — United States Bureau of the Census. Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population Schedules, Florida, Highlands County, ED 28-8: the Coward household on Fairfield Avenue. 27 April 1950. where-black-avon-park-lived-1950.md
- newssun-conner-1995 — Romona Washington, Highlands News-Sun. Conner first Black to serve as police officer — Highlands News-Sun, 25 February 2025, reprinting Romona Washington’s profile of 1995. 25 February 2025. fred-conner.md
- findagrave-coward — Find a Grave contributors. Find a Grave memorial 34287123, Queen E. Coward (22 July 1925 – 14 August 2000), Lakeview Memorial Gardens, Avon Park. 2 September 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34287123/queen-e-coward
- avon-park-city-council-2016 — City of Avon Park. City of Avon Park meeting agendas, 2016 (street closure request for Queen Coward Avenue). City of Avon Park meeting agendas
Related
- Entity: Fred L. C. Conner
- Entity: Edgar A. DeLaney, Sr.
- Finding: The Progressive Civic Club and Queen Coward Avenue
- Finding: where Black Avon Park lived in 1950
- Report: The Avon Park election of 1951
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- United States Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population Schedules, Florida, Highlands County, ED 28-8: the Coward household on Fairfield Avenue (1950)
- Romona Washington, Highlands News-Sun, Conner first Black to serve as police officer — Highlands News-Sun, 25 February 2025, reprinting Romona Washington's profile of 1995 (2025)
- Find a Grave contributors, Find a Grave memorial 34287123, Queen E. Coward (22 July 1925 – 14 August 2000), Lakeview Memorial Gardens, Avon Park (2026)
- City of Avon Park, City of Avon Park meeting agendas, 2016 (street closure request for Queen Coward Avenue) (City of Avon Park meeting agendas) · official
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