Freddye Elma Scarborough was born in Franklinton, Louisiana on February 18, 1917, to an educator-minister father and a homemaker mother. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Southern University in 1937 at age 20, with her Bachelor’s degree and was the first African American to study fashion merchandising at the Traphagen School of Fashion at New York University, where she received a Master’s Degree. Freddye wrote a syndicated column for the Associated Negro Press on fashion design and a column on travel that appeared in 126 newspapers in the United States and Africa for ten years.

As a teacher, Freddye taught Home Economics, Textiles, Fashion Design, Applied Art and Personality Development at Spelman College for 11 years. She met Jacob R. Henderson, a South Carolina State College football star and Atlanta University MBA and married him on July 4, 1941. They were together for 56 years before his death on March 12, 1997. They had four children, Carole, Jacob Jr., Gaynelle, and Shirley.