The Corona Collection: Denise Pease

By Charanya Ramakrishnan

Within a few minutes of speaking with Denise Pease, it becomes clear that she is a dynamic force–a leader who met four US Presidents, worked with two, traveled the world, and yet being deeply committed to give back to her community. Ms. Pease is a longtime resident of Corona, Queens and lives a few blocks from Armstrong’s home. She is a patron of the museum and was close to the Armstrongs. In her interview, she reflects on Lucille Armstrong as a mentor, whose contributions have had a lasting impact on the Corona community. Denise Pease’s life story also gives us a deeper understanding of the stalwarts and leaders who were connected to the neighborhood, whose legacies continue to shape and inspire the generations today.

“In 1946, Dr. (Carter G.) Woodson and Mother Rosetta Gaston introduced William Henry Pease Jr. to Louise Marion Caswell, and I’m the result.”- Denise Pease, Corona Collection, 2025

Denise Pease was born in Morrisania Hospital, Bronx in 1953, in the same borough where Lucille Armstrong was born!

*A baby photograph of Denise Pease, The Corona Collection, 2025*.

Her father Prof William Henry Pease Jr, born in 1921 was mentored by Dr. Woodson, the founder of Black History month, and Ms. Gaston also a Black historian and community advocate.

“My father, was a friend of Uncle Louie. He became a college Professor. He was a Tuskegee Airman, and he played the violin. Uncle Louie found out my father played the violin, and he was going to school to be … He had just been hired at, I think, Suffolk Community College or RCA Institutes. So he called my father the Professor, uh, which he eventually became before his, before he retired” – Denise Pease, The Corona Collection, 2025

William Henry Pease Jr. was also honored as a Point of Light for the citizens of New York City, for his immense contribution to African-American history and for his effective work with youth. He was a Tuskegee Airmen welter-weight champion and the first African-American President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, served as an educator for two decades at Suffolk County Community College and was the first full-time African-American administrator at the college. Louis Marion Caswell, Ms. Pease’s mother, was the first African American woman graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology.

*E1906 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- Extension of Remarks October 2, 1977, Source :* *https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-1997-10-02/pdf/CREC-1997-10-02-pt1-PgE1906.pdf, Accessed 20 April 2026.*

*A photograph of Louis Marion Caswell, Ms Pease’s mother, The Corona Collection, 2025*

“Ms. Lucille encouraged my mother to go back to school while she had been one of the first graduates of Fashion Institute of Technology. She went back to school to Queens College and she became an early childhood education teacher. But she developed schizophrenia when I was very young. And I think that’s why Ms. Lucille kind of embraced me a little when I became a young adult teenager.”–Denise Pease, The Corona Collection, 2025

*Denise Pease on her Graduation Day with her mother, The Corona Collection, 2025*

The practice that informed my decisions in documenting the oral histories was rooted in place-based narratives. I wanted to capture these stories and memories in relation to the place. This method of documentation stems from my understanding that the place evokes complex, multi-layered memories. Moreover, sharing these memories in that particular space further adds to our collective consciousness of the material culture of the neighborhood. In Denise Pease’s interview we were welcomed to her beautiful home. The various portraits, paintings, curios, and photographs portray the rich tapestry of the life she leads. Over the next couple of hours I spend in her home, she shares various moments of her life in relation to these objects, that come to life through her words.

*Ms Pease points to the painted portrait of her parents, at the entrance of her home. The Corona Collection, 2025.*

*A close up of the portrait of William Henry Pease Jr. and Louise Marion Caswell, The Corona Collection 2025.*

In the center of Ms. Pease’s living room is an incredible array of curios from Africa. She begins to share about her many travels to Africa and her experience of meeting the great leaders: the President of South Africa-Thabo Mbeki, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first women elected as the head of state in Africa. She also remembers hearing the story about the South-African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and how his first trumpet originally belonged to Louis Armstrong!

*A signed poster of Jacob Lawrence’s exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, 1987, hangs in Denise Pease’s living room.*

Denise Pease moved with her family from Brooklyn, to Corona, Queens in 1961. She was about seven years old when they moved into the neighborhood. She remembers meeting “Uncle Louie” at Joe’s Artistic Barber Shop.

“I met Uncle Louie, I must have been about eight or nine years old. And I met him at the barbershop on 106th Street because my father used to take me with him on Saturdays. He was a friend of Uncle Louie’s.”- Denise Pease, The Corona Collection, 2025

*Louis getting his hair cut at Joe’s Barber Shop, Photo Credit : John Loengard, Satchmo Collection 1996.39.53*

Her mother was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, and when Ms. Pease was a teenager, she got to know Lucille Armstrong.

*A photograph of Denise Pease in her teens*.

“This is my picture when I was the age that I really got close to Ms. Lucille. When I was probably in my late teens and early 20s, um, I really got to know Ms. Lucille, you know, and it was after Uncle Louie passed away. At first, she didn’t know that I was William Pease’s daughter, but I had told her the story of my mother having schizophrenia, and she kind of embraced me.” – Denise Pease, The Corona Collection, 2025

In the years that followed, Lucille Armstrong became an important figure in Denise’s life, a mentor who influenced her in many ways. Lucille encouraged Denise Pease to grow into a leader, and as a result she became one of the youngest a member of the North Shore Chapter of the Negro Business and Professional Women. On the personal front, Ms. Pease also recalls that her love for crystals, scarves and fine clothing was inspired by Lucille!

*Lucille Armstrong’s membership card of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club, Inc. 1987.10.053, Louis Armstrong Collection, Louis Armstrong Archives*

*Perfume bottles that Lucille Armstrong gifted Denise Pease, The Corona Collection, 2025.*

*Denise Pease adorns the Hermès Scarf that Lucille gifted her, The Corona Collection, 2025.*

When asked what she would like to ask Lucille Armstrong if she were alive today, Denise Pease responds:

“I would ask her, ‘Are you proud of me?’ I think she would have been proud of me serving in the Obama administration, but I think she would have been even more proud of something I had done more recently, for President Biden, which was being on the Presidential Advisory Commission for Educational Excellence, Equity, and Economic Opportunities for Black Americans, because that’s what she was all about. She wanted all students to have the best education that they could get, and nothing to constrain that. I mean, you know, for a child growing up in Corona during those times, and even maybe during this time.” – Denise Pease, The Corona Collection, 2025.