Josie Ware Lewis was born in Lindal, Texas, on July 24, 1896^[1] to John Baptist Ware and Mary (Bettie) Baker Ware, both from Texas. The couple married in Tarrant County the following year. They resided in Swarn, a tiny town just outside of Dallas that no longer exists. There, John worked as a farmer. Despite the challenges, Bettie and her children persevered. After John’s untimely death, they lived briefly with her mother before she packed up to follow her father to Redbird, Oklahoma, one of Oklahoma’s newest 50 black towns. The Red Bird Investment Company had successfully recruited many African American families to settle in the newly established town by 1903. By 1920, it boasted 336 residents, a high school, and a few businesses, including Sharp’s Grocery/Masonic Hall and the Red Bird Drugstore, which both opened on the eve of the Wares’ arrival.

Josie’s grandfather had moved to Redbird for these fantastic opportunities and because he wanted to “get his rights.”    There, Josie recalls living in a little “car box” until her grandfather could gain land for farming.^[2] While her grandfather might have been happy, Josie was not. Likely looking to escape hard farm life, Josie moved to Parsons, Kansas. Though it is unclear when she arrived, it is clear that she initially lived with an aunt and that she set out to find a job every day. For a while, success proved elusive. Josie eventually landed a job as a laundress and soon had more work than she could manage. 

 By 1920, she had married Texas native James Armstrong, a man 17 years her senior. While James worked in the city’s railroad industry, Josie had switched jobs, this time working as a dishwasher in the Broadway Cafeteria. There, Josie’s responsibilities steadily increased, and she soon went on to handle the café’s supply shopping, finances, and hiring and firing. Her title as manager’s assistant captured her expanding duties and her natural-born leadership. Despite having “only finished the eighth grade. . . and didn’t have the opportunity to get any higher education,” she often stood out on her jobs and was quickly promoted.^[3] Josie moved back to Tulsa around 1933 or 1934 after James’s death.

By this time, Greenwood had experienced many changes since the Tulsa Race Massacre 14 years earlier. A lot of rebuilding had occurred, and by 1942, the district claimed some 242 Black-owned businesses. Despite this impressive rebuilding, many in Greenwood continued to live in inadequate housing. A 1942 housing study that analyzed the living conditions of more than 400 units in East Greenwood found that more than 2/3 of these residents rented homes that lacked indoor plumbing, electricity, or other utilities at a high cost. As author Victor Luckerson summarized, the report showed that “Outside the pleasing symmetry of the brick building in the heart of Deep Greenwood, much of the neighborhood was slapdash construction with rickety shacks and repurposed boxcars often abutting elegant middle-class homes.”^[4] Josie’s story deepens what we know of Greenwood’s female residents because, like many female residents in the district, she was not a business owner, the wife of one of the district’s prominent men, or, for a long while at least, a homeowner. Her hard work on jobs and commitment to the church and community speaks to the quiet dignity and hard work that defined many Greenwood women.

Soon after her arrival, Josie became a First Baptist Church, North Tulsa member. It was undoubtedly at church where Josie met Amos Lewis, who was originally from Mississippi. He had arrived in Oklahoma shortly after statehood. Amos, who had married when he was 21, had moved to Oklahoma sometime between 1911 and 1914 with his wife and children. He may have made the move to improve his employment prospects. The 1920 census records reveal that he was a mail loader in the railroad industry. Amos quickly became active in church affairs, serving as a deacon, member, and chair of the Brotherhood and teaching in Sunday School and Baptist Teaching Union. It is unclear what happened to Amos’s first wife, as the couple was still married at the time of the 1930 census. What is clear is that Amos and Josie were wed on August 12, 1936. Josie provided motherly care to the children whom she helped to rear.

Initially, Josie vowed not to work outside the home after marrying Amos. This promise changed when she took a job at the Mayo Hotel. The prestigious hotel opened in 1925 and often hosted famous figures like Charlie Chaplin and President John F. Kennedy. Josie had initially gone to the Mayo for a temporary job, learning from her sister that it was hosting a job fair. Josie was mainly called to work when a close friend could not make it. This all changed when she cleaned the suite of Lillian Mayo, the wife of the owner and manager of the Mayo Hotel, John B. Mayo. Lillian preferred how Josie cleaned and asked her to come on as her full-time employee. The offer caused Josie great distress as she did not want it to seem that she had stolen her friend’s job. Ultimately, she took it when she learned Lillian would not hire her friend back anyway.

The job introduced Josie to another side of Tulsa. Most significantly, Josie could walk into segregated stores to purchase items for Lillian. The task allowed Lewis to temporarily escape the suffocating laws of segregation that restricted African American freedom and mobility. Although the feeling was fleeting, Lewis’s video interview suggested that she experienced great satisfaction when white customers or storeowners found that they could not turn her away.^[5]  

After the nation entered the Second World War, Josie left the Mayo and began working at the Douglas Aircraft Company. The company arrived in Oklahoma in 1942 after the state convinced the U.S. War Department to build plants in Oklahoma by agreeing to provide the land and necessary runways. In Tulsa, 750 acres allowed the facility known as Air Force Plant 3 to produce A-24 Dauntless dive bombers, B-24 Liberator strategic bombers, and A-26 Invader medium bombs.

Josie started as a regular worker at Douglass but quickly found herself in another supervisory role, this time as a leadwoman, overseeing five other employees. It was remarkable at the time for Josie to receive a leadership position there, as there were many racial and gendered barriers. In an interview with Eddie Faye Gates, Josie recalls the managers at Douglas Aircraft calling her in and offering her a promotion. She refused to leave some of her closest coworkers behind, so management eventually permitted Josie and her coworkers to move to the new position. Perhaps because of increased pay, Josie and Amos became the proud homeowners of 751 Pine Place. Before this time, despite Josie working nearly 50 hours a week at the Mayo and her husband working almost 60, they rented a room from a younger couple.

At the end of World War II (September 1945), when the Tulsa plant was converted to a storage facility, Josie sought new employment. The 1950 census shows that she worked as a cook at the Chamber of Commerce. As she had at her previous jobs, Josie shared that she quickly rose through the ranks and became the Salad Chef.^[6]  At one point in her employment history, she became a cook for the Senior Citizens Outbreak Worker’s Dinner Program. There is little information regarding when this job was, but its title suggests that it provided dinner meals to seniors in need. For Josie, the job likely fit her larger life goal: “to help the less fortunate.”^[7]

Josie and Amos remained especially active in church life. Josie was involved on the Deaconess Board as late as 1943. In 1941, First Baptist hosted its first Women’s Day in honor of the positive impact that Josie and other women had on the congregation and its work. Josie was a deaconess and the chairwoman of communion on the Deaconess Board of First Baptist during her life, another indication of her aptitude as a leader. Furthermore, she served as a Sunday school teacher for girls in junior high school.

After Amos’s passing in May 1968, Josie dedicated even more time to the betterment of her community. She remained heavily involved in her church’s Missionary Society, serving as secretary at 76 in 1970. It is little wonder that First Baptist named her part of the Trailblazers Ministry, as it counted the more than 50 years of service of some members in 1992.

Beyond First Baptist, Josie was also a part of the Cheer Bearers. This community group visited the sick and shut-in, further demonstrating Josie’s commitment to a life of service. Even after becoming a centenarian in 1996, she was never at home. Gates found scheduling a time to interview Josie quite tricky because she was always “at a nutrition site, or at the ‘Y,’ or at her First Baptist Church mission, or visiting the sick and elderly.”^[8] Josie also visited prisons and helped people find homes.”

Josie died on September 23, 1999, at 103 years old. Twenty years after her death, First Baptist hosted the Josie Ware Lewis Fellowship Luncheon, just one example of how her legacy of selfless character and community service has endured. Josie Lewis’s life was centered on the belief: “If I can help somebody today, then my life shall not be in vain.”^[9] It is little wonder that she was affectionately known as “Aunt Josie” because of her work in the neighborhood, particularly with youth.

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[1] Different sources recorded different years for Josie Ware’s birth. However, multiple sources, including her interview with Gates, recorded her birth in July 1896. Given the overwhelming records for the latter, this essay uses this date.

[2] “Josie Lewis Interview, 1995, 1996, 1995 – 1996,”  Archive Item: 5327.1700l, VHS, Box 19,  Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gilcrease Museum.

[3] “Josie Lewis Interview, 1995, 1996, 1995 – 1996.”  

[4] Victor Luckerson, Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street: One Hundred Years in the Neighborhood That Refused to Be Erased (New York: Random House, 2023), 212.

[5] “Josie Lewis Interview, 1995, 1996, 1995 – 1996.”  

[6] “Funeral program of Deaconess Josie Ware Lewis,” Smithsonian: National Museum of African American History & Culture.

[7] “Funeral program of Deaconess Josie Ware Lewis.”

[8] “Josie Lewis Interview, 1995, 1996, 1995 – 1996.”

[9] “Funeral program of Deaconess Josie Ware Lewis.”

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Citation: Jordan Mouton, Cara Jackson, and Colyn Sodowsky, “Josie Lewis,” in Brandy Thomas Wells, Ed. Women of Black Wall Street, 2025 (2021), https://blackwallstreetwomen.com/josie-w-lewis/ (Access date).

Any use of images on the website must be attributed to the original site/copyright holder.

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Eddie Faye Gates, “Josie Lewis,” They Came Searching: How Blacks Sought the Promised Land in Tulsa (New York: Eakin Press, 1997), 138-140.

Tarrant County Marriage Records, Texas, U.S. 1837-1965, accessed via Ancestry.com.

Larry O’Dell, “Red Bird,” Oklahoma Historical Society.  

History of Parsons,” Parsons Chamber of Commerce.

“Josie Lewis Interview, 1995, 1996, 1995 – 1996,”  Archive Item: 5327.1700l, VHS, Box 19,  Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gilcrease Museum.

U.S. Federal Census, 1920 [Labette, Kansas], accessed via Ancestry.com.

Hannibal B. Johnson, “Greenwood District,” Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

 “Pioneer Oklahoman’s Services Set Thursday,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), 23 May 1968.

Jerome D. Wilson, “‘Aunt’ Josie Lewis Turns 100,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), 1 August 1996.  

First Baptist Church North Tulsa, “Deacons.”

U.S. Federal Census, 1900 [Martinsville, Mississippi], accessed via Ancestry.com.

U.S. Federal Census, 1910 [East Hazlehurst, Oklahoma], accessed via Ancestry.com.

U.S. Federal Census, 1920 [Tulsa, Oklahoma], accessed via Ancestry.com.

Victor Luckerson, Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street: One Hundred Years in the Neighborhood That Refused to Be Erased (New York: Random House, 2023).

Oklahoma, U.S. County Marriage Records, 1890-1905, accessed via Ancestry.com.

“Funeral program of Deaconess Josie Ware Lewis,” Smithsonian: National Museum of African American History & Culture.

The Mayo Hotel, “Our History,” https://www.themayohotel.com/history

Kent A. Schell, “Tulsa Bomber Plant,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

U.S. Federal Census, 1940 [Tulsa, Oklahoma], accessed via Ancestry.com.

U.S. Federal Census, 1950 [Tulsa, Oklahoma], accessed via Ancestry.com.

Horace S. Hughes, “Deaconess Board,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), 6 March 1943.

“Women’s Day at First Baptist North Tulsa.” Muskogee-Okmulgee Oklahoma Eagle (Muskogee and Okmulgee, Oklahoma), 18 May 1989.

 “First Baptist WMU Confab Slated Sunday,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), 22 January 1970.

 “97th Church Anniversary,” Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Oklahoma), 21 November 1996.

First Baptist Church, North Tulsa, “Josie Ware Lewis Fellowship Luncheon.”