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Ann Kathryn Flagg

Playwright, teacher, and actress Ann Kathryn Flagg (April 29, 1924-October 27, 1970) was born in Charleston. She graduated from Garnet High School in 1941 and West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University) in 1945. She became a teacher of high school drama in Virginia and then toured with the American Negro Repertory Players. Later, she taught at Dunbar High School in Fairmont.

In 1952, Flagg resigned her teaching position to become director of the Children’s Theater at Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio. While in Cleveland, she won acclaim for her title-role performances in Sophocles’ Antigone and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. She moved to Chicago in 1961 to obtain a master’s degree at Northwestern University. While in Chicago, Flagg wrote Great Gettin’ Up Mornin’. The play won first place in the National Collegiate Playwriting Contest and was broadcast by CBS-TV. Flagg’s other plays include Blueboy to Holiday—Over, A Significant Statistic, and Unto the Least of These.

Flagg returned to teaching in 1963 for the Evanston Consolidated School District and Southern Illinois University. She died in Illinois and was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Charleston.