Estelle Rouse Pinkett
(1892-1961)

Died aged c. 69

Estelle Rouse Pinkett, born in 1892, was an educator at Fort Lauderdale’s Old Dillard School from the 1930s to the 1950s. Mrs. Pinkett began teaching fifth and sixth grades there in 1932, and until 1959, encouraged students to attend college. While many African-Americans struggled to finish grade school, Mrs. Pinkett sent the majority of her students to Bethune-Cookman College and Florida A&M University. In her community, during World War II, she founded the first African-American USO. She established the "Teachers for Tomorrow" program, an initiative to train students to become teachers. She taught Sunday school and served as a church officer at Mt. Olive Baptist Church. Estelle Rouse Pinkett died in 1961.

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