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.

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.

As a teacher, Freddye taught Home Economics, Textiles, Fashion Design, Applied Art and Personality Development at Spelman College for 11 years. In 1949, she and other Black designers went to New York to display dresses they designed. Through this venture, Freddye and the other designers created the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers (NAFAD).

Thanks to the wife of the French Ambassador to the United States, Mary McCleod Bethune, Freddye was invited to France for the fall fashion shows of Christian Dior and Chanel in Paris, of Hardy Aimes in London, and the Fontana Sisters in Rome. It was this visit that opened Freddye’s eyes to the wonder and ease of travel.

In 1964, Freddye arranged the trip to Oslo, Norway for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and accompanied him as a member of his delegation. In 1974, she was received by Premier Chou En Lai in the Great Hall of China. Because of her pioneering in African travel, she was invited to be a member of the official delegation sent to China by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. She and her son Jake, Jr. were the first African-Americans to achieve the Certified Travel Counsel designation by the Institute for Certified Travel Agents.

Freddye was named the “Queen of Travel and Tours” by the Ghanian government. The ceremony was held in Koforidua, Ghana in 1999. During the ceremony, she was received by paramount chiefs decked in ceremonial gold and thousands of Ghanaian citizens. Freddye died on January 19, 2007 survived by two daughters, one son-in-law, and four grandchildren.