Freddye Henderson: 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.

Jacob Henderson, Sr.: Born June 27, 1911 in Abbeville, South Carolina, Jacob Robert "Jake" Henderson earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from South Carolina State A and M College and a master's degree in economics from Atlanta University. A successful businessman, Mr. Henderson co-owned Henderson Travel Service with his wife. Their clients have included the Reverend Martin Luther King , Jr. and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. With Atlanta Mayors Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young, Mr. Henderson worked on public housing and economic development programs in the city. He was also an active board member and officer of the Butler Street YMCA for twenty-five years. In 1982, Mr. Henderson was named Honorary Consul of the Republic of Senegal, in West Africa, by that country's president, Abdou Diouf.

Mr. Henderson died March 13, 1997 at 85 years old, from complications of Alzheimer's disease at Southwest Hospital and Medical Center.

Carole Henderson: Carole Elfreda Henderson was born August 29, 1942 in Atlanta, Georgia as the first child and first daughter to Freddye and Jake Sr. Henderson.

She recieved her Master's degree from Howard University in French and African studies in 1968, and also taught West African literature at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1970 she attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to earn her Ph.D. in anthropology.

She joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1979, where she would work for the next twenty years assisting the country in becoming independent from South Africa. In 1998 she became Vice President of International Affairs for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, doing research on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa. Tyson later founded Henderson’s Global Voices, which brings international speakers to American audiences.

Carole died September 15, 2025. She is survived by her children.

Jacob Henderson, Jr.: Jake Henderson Jr. is the second child from Freddye and Jake Sr. and the only boy. Born January 3, 1944, Jake Jr. graduated from Columbia Law School in 1968.

He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps September 19th, 1968 and served in the Vietnam War, eventually earning the title of Captain Jake Henderson Jr.

He ran the Africa Business Development Corporation, utilizing the Atlanta Economic Development Corporations offices as meeting places. Through AEDC, he worked on the Goree Island Project, an ambitious project to both revive the Goree Island, an island known for once housing enslaved individuals, and create a hotel for future tourist and visitors. This project never came to be.

He was the Vice President, then President of the Henderson Travel Service, from the late 1970s to 1984, with his sister, Gaynelle, moving the operation to Washington, D.C., where she took over as the President through to present day.

Jake Jr. died February 21, 2010, and is survived by his wife, Solange, his adopted children, David Hiawatha Howard and Sidney Darryl Brasier Howard, his mother-in-law, sisters, uncles and aunts, and many nephews, nieces, and cousins.

Gaynelle Henderson: Gaynelle Henderson, born December 2nd, 1949, is the third child born from Freddye and Jake Sr. and the second daughter.

She recieved her Bachelor's in Speech at Howard University in 1970, her Master's in Communication Arts from Federal City College in 1972, and her PHD in Organizational Communication from Howard University in 1980. She met and married her husband, Lance Bailey, an urban architect while at the university. From previous marriages, the couple has two sons, Shaka Long (hers) and Kwame Bailey (his).

Now Dr. Gaynelle Henderson-Bailey, she took over the business from her brother Jake, Jr. in 1984 and still gives tours today.

Shirley Henderson: Shirley attended the University of Illinois where she got her Bachelor's degree in Advertising. While a student at Spelman College, she studied abroad at the University of Paris on the Charles Merrill, Jr. scholarship and through friend Aliessane Diop, studied at the University of Dakar in Senegal.

She married Wheldon Coleman and the couple has two children. She now works as a development and marketing consultant for a health and rehabilitation center in Atlanta where she previously volunteered.