Mabel W. Jorgensen (1932-2021) was a singer. She was elected to The Lambs in 1987 as Non-Resident Professional member. Her spouse was Roy B. Jorgensen, also a longtime Lamb.
Mabel Winsley Jorgensen was born April 3, 1932, to Aretha Timmons Winsley and Roosevelt Winsley in Stamford, Connecticut.
A lifelong resident of Stamford, Mabel graduated from Stamford High School and was the first African American to graduate from Eastern Medical School as a medical assistant. She lived in Stamford all her life where she married Edwin Alexander Redfern. During that time she helped launch Jack & Jill with Rachel Robinson (wife of baseball legend Jackie Robinson) and was active in the West Main Street community center. In 1979, she remarried Roy B. Jorgensen, a former radio WSTC/WYRS on-air personality for the Big Band sound and Count Basie Band manager.
Mabel loved the creative arts and had a beautiful singing voice. She could be heard singing in the First United Methodist Church or anywhere where there was a piano playing. She also had the opportunity to sing at Carnegie Hall as part of the New York Oratorio Society. She worked and had several positions in the medical field, as well as in commercial property management as an administrator.
She also was president of the Museum of Black World War II History (still in development). The museum was originally developed in a small Vermont town and was relocated to Stamford in 2011 with her partner of nine years, Bruce Bird, founder of the museum.
Mabel Winsley Jorgensen died on January 7, 2021, at Calvary Hospital in The Bronx. She was 88 years old.