Friday evening, the streets of Denison will come alive with the sounds of jazz when the city celebrates the life and legacy of Denison native, the late Clora Bryant.

A mural will be unveiled at Rae of Sunshine Collective, 110 S. Fannin Ave., Denison, celebrating the trumpeter who got her start in the city.

The Denison High School Jazz band will be performing in Forest Park at 5:30 p.m. A light reception will be held at Rae of Sunshine at 6 p.m. and the mural dedication will take place at 6:30 p.m.

Clora Bryant was born on May 30, 1927 in Denison, and it was in Denison that her love of the trumpet grew. She performed in the marching band while she attended high school in Denison.

She attended Prairie View College, now known as Prairie View A&M University, where she a member of the school’s coed jazz band. From Texas, Bryant moved to California where she was a part of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an all-female jazz band.

Bryant is known for her work with Josephine Baker, Billie Holliday, Louis Armstrong and others. She was friends with Dizzy Gillespie whose trumpets call the Sherman Jazz Museum home.

Bryant died in California in 2019 at the age of 92.

Denison Main Street Director Donna Dow said that Bryant had been on her radar for a long time and the idea for her mural fell into place.

“The business owner proposed a mural on the side of her building,” Dow said. “We cannot paint on unpainted brick so we proposed that she do a panel that can be placed on the side of her building instead. We got bogged down in circumstances.”

At this time, the subject of the mural was not known. But soon after, Dow began working on a grant involving Bryant.

“I wrote a grant to do a documentary on Clora Bryant,” Dow said. “It was successful. So, we got to visit with Clora Bryant’s sons who live in L.A. They were going to come in to Denison to speak with us for the documentary. It just became a way to honor Clora.

“We rededicated ourselves to following up on the panel mural. The business owner at the Rae of Sunshine was happy to rekindle that and bring it to life.”

Now the mural is complete and will be unveiled just in time for what would have been Bryant’s 98th birthday.

“We are going to do the documentary when the sons come to town,” Dow said of this week’s event. “That will be on Clora’s birthday. They really want to memorialize their mother, and our community really wants to celebrate her contributions to the world. We really want to capitalize on the fact she was from Denison and did all these great things.”

This mural was painted by local artist Jordan Davis who has done other work in downtown Denison including dumpster painting.

“The murals tell a story,” Dow said. “In our policy on the murals for downtown, we require that they be related to our heritage. There is not another mural that is done in similar style to this one. It expands in that, And the artist has done a lot of work in downtown, but she has not done a mural.”

As for this mural, it does more than tell a story. It connects the dots in other ways in Denison.

“Clora’s name kept coming up and Melissa Lewis, the high school band teacher, kept mentioning Clora Bryant,” Dow said. “She has initiated the Sweethearts of Swing which was based on Clora and her friend’s college days. The high school jazz band plays in honor of them. I kept hearing Clora Bryant and it became obvious that she was someone that needed to be recognized.

“I would really like individuals to learn the stories of the people and how objects even in the mural relate to Denison’s history. I want them to learn about Clora Bryant and others and why they were significant.”

Following the mural dedication, Ivanhoe Ale Works and Homestead Winery in downtown Denison will be hosting a live jazz night from 7-10 p.m. Dow said this event will serve as like an after party for the jazz celebration day.