Henrietta Bell Wells (October 11, 1912 – February 27, 2008) was the first female member of the debate team at Wiley College, a historically black college in Texas. She participated with them in 1935, when their nearly undefeated season culminated in defeating the team of nationally ranked University of Southern California.
She was born Henrietta Pauline Bell on the banks of Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas to Octavia Bell, a West Indian single mother. Her maternal grandfather was a "strong Episcopalian" in the West Indies, and she was raised in the Episcopal Church. She graduated as valedictorian from Phyllis Wheatley High School in Houston. The YWCA gave her a small scholarship to attend Wiley College.[1]
When they were in New Orleans, Mrs. Wells served as the Dean of Women at Dillard University, and her husband was Dean of Chapel.[2][3]
The character Samantha Booke in the 2007 movie, The Great Debaters, played by Jurnee Smollett, was loosely based on Wells. Wells stated that she had told Denzel Washington, who directed the film, to also play her team's coach, Melvin B. Tolson, which he did.[4]
Bell died on February 27, 2008, aged 95. She is buried in Paradise North Cemetery in Houston, Texas.[5]
Bell returned to Houston after graduation. There she met and married fellow Episcopalian Wallace L. Wells, a musician. He had completed a master's in music at University of Southern California. They moved to Gary, Indiana, where he served as church organist at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church (Gary, Indiana).
Wells became a social worker and teacher, drawing from each field. She became a supervisor in social work.
After World War II, her husband studied to become an ordained minister. They served in several churches in Indiana towns before being called to New Orleans in 1963.<ref name=DailyEp
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