Doria Ragland
American social worker and yoga instructor (born 1956) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Doria Loyce Ragland (born September 2, 1956)[1][a] is the mother of Meghan Markle and the ex-wife of American retired television lighting director and director of photography Thomas Markle Sr.. Ragland holds a degree in social work and is a former makeup artist and yoga instructor.
Doria Ragland | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ragland (right) in May 2018, with daughter Meghan Markle | |
| Born | Doria Loyce Ragland September 2, 1956 |
| Education | University of Southern California (MSW) |
| Occupation |
|
| Spouse | |
| Children | Meghan Markle |
| Family | Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (Son-in-Law) |
Early life
Summarize
Perspective
Doria Ragland was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to nurse Jeanette Arnold (1929–2000) and her second husband Alvin Azell Ragland (1929–2011),[3] an antiques dealer who sold items at flea markets.[4] Ragland's maternal grandparents, James and Nettie Arnold, respectively worked as a bellhop and an elevator operator at the Hotel St. Regis on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.[3][5][6] Her parents moved to Los Angeles when Ragland was a baby[3] and later divorced. In 1983, her father married kindergarten teacher Ava Burrow,[7] who is near to Ragland's age; the two remained close after that marriage also ended in divorce.[8] Ragland has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph (known as "JJ"; 1949–2021) and Saundra Johnson (born 1952), and a younger paternal half-brother, Alvin Joffrey Ragland.[9]
Various contemporary records state that the Ragland family descend from Richard "Dick" Ragland, born into slavery c.1792 in Chatham County, North Carolina; his son, Stephen Ragland (1848-1926) of Jonesboro in Georgia, lived long enough to experience the abolition of slavery in 1865. The family's Ragland surname came from slave-owner William Ragland, a Methodist planter and land speculator who had emigrated during the eighteenth century from Cornwall, England, to North America.[10][11] Doria's daughter Meghan Markle has claimed that a genealogy test revealed that she is 43% Nigerian.[12]
Career and education
After leaving Fairfax High School,[4] Ragland worked as a temporary assistant makeup artist on the set of the television show General Hospital where she met future ex-husband Thomas Markle, Sr. [13] She worked as a travel agent and owned a small business.[14] After divorcing Markle, Ragland completed her undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.[4] In 2011, she earned a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Southern California.[15] After passing California's licensing examination in 2015, she was employed as a social worker for three years at the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services Clinic in Culver City.[16][17][18][19] Ragland has also worked as a yoga instructor.[20] In 2020, it was reported that she would teach a jewelry making course at Santa Monica College.[21] In the same year, Ragland became CEO, CFO and secretary of a care home firm in Beverly Hills, called Loving Kindness Senior Care Management.[22]
Personal life
Ragland married lighting director Thomas Markle on December 23, 1979, at Hollywood's Paramahansa Yogananda Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in a ceremony performed by Brother Bhaktananda.[23][15] Their daughter, Meghan, was born in 1981. The couple separated when their daughter was two years old.[24] They divorced in 1987.[20][25]
Ragland resides in View Park–Windsor Hills, California,[26][27] in a house inherited from her father in 2011.[4] She has accompanied Meghan to public events and attended her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry in Berkshire.[28][29] Ragland became a grandmother on May 6, 2019. She flew to the United Kingdom to see her grandson, Prince Archie of Sussex, and his parents.[30] In July, she attended Prince Archie's christening at the private chapel at Windsor Castle.[30] Her granddaughter, Princess Lilibet of Sussex, was born on June 4, 2021, in Santa Barbara, California.[31]
See also
- "(Almost) Straight Outta Compton", a 2016 tabloid article headline about Meghan Markle and her mother's background
Notes
- A genealogical blog published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society contains an essay by a staff member that says she was born September 15, 1956.[2]
References
External links
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