Leslie Imes saw her friend Camay Calloway Murphy change someone’s life many times with a phone call. The daughter of the jazz bandleader and singer Cab Calloway had a way of seeing potential in people even if they were too afraid to seize opportunities or didn’t notice it themselves.

Imes admired Murphy’s gentle nudges to get someone even a little closer to what they were capable of by leveraging resources and providing her own wisdom.

“She had a way of putting you in the right place at the right time,” Imes said. “She’d help you awaken your better angels.”

Imes and Murphy spent every New Year’s Eve together for the past decade and had plans to bring a Jazz festival to Baltimore.

Murphy died on Nov. 12 surrounded by family in Havre De Grace. Her son, in a Facebook post announcing her passing, said she long struggled with heart failure and breast cancer.

An outpouring of acknowledgements followed the news and the 97-year-old, named by her aunt after a popular soap brand, was remembered for her long career in education, dedication to arts, culture and social justice, and for always lifting others as she climbed various ladders of success.

Murphy’s role as an educator took her as far as Nigeria, where she was a headmaster at a school, but one of her longer positions would be as a principal at an elementary school in Virginia.

Though she was originally from New York City, she had a soft spot and a well-known influence in Baltimore, where her father’s childhood home once stood before being demolished in 2020. Cab Calloway began singing in Baltimore, but left as he carved out his music career. By the 1930s, Calloway started a gig at New York City’s “Cotton Club” and the hit songs, film appearances and international performances filled the years that followed.

Murphy and her family would spend summers in Baltimore. She moved to Baltimore as an adult in 1994 and worked at Coppin State College as a cultural development consultant and founded the Cab Calloway Jazz Institute and Museum, which still exists in the library. She wrote her own children’s book called “Can a Coal Scuttle Fly?” and was appointed a commissioner for Baltimore City Public Schools.

That’s where Randy Gardner got his gentle nudge from Murphy. Gardner, then a repeating senior in 2008 and percussionist at Frederick Douglass High School, credits Murphy for seeing his potential, developing his skills and making him act on them. Most importantly, though, she showed up. When he was dealing with adversity at home, when he needed a meal or simply wanted to talk, she was there in her station wagon.

“She became much more than just Cab Calloway’s daughter, just Camay Murphy. She really became a godmother,” said Gardner, who’d go on to pursue a career in music and start his own band.

The school system is where Murphy also met her longtime mentee, Troy Burton. And, for at least the last 30 years, he’d watch her almost effortlessly pick up eclectic projects and deliver on them. He learned to “work hard and work for your own,” and observed as she repeatedly poured her efforts into others. When Murphy served as the chairperson for the Eubie Blake Cultural Center, Burton was by her side as a programmer. She taught him the ropes and positioned him to take over as executive director, where he has served for over 10 years.

“Her pearls of wisdom have always guided me when I would doubt myself,” Burton said.

Burton added that Murphy was adamant about connecting people to the arts, especially young up-and-coming creatives. And she was a “stickler for preserving history” and legacy. When Murphy moved to Havre De Grace, that didn’t change. Murphy was a key influence in getting a memorial built for Ernest Burke, a veteran of the Marines in WWII and a player in the Negro Leagues.

“She had a tenacity about any cause she took on and saw it through to the very end,” said Verna Jackson, a friend of Murphy’s since she moved to Baltimore

Murphy received numerous awards and acknowledgements throughout her life, including a Congressional Letter of Appreciation from Congressman Elijah Cummings and a “Camay Service Award” — named in her honor — from the Baltimore Renaissance Jazz Festival organization.

Whether she was accepting an award or meeting someone for lunch, her style resonated equally as much as her kindness, dedication and generosity, those who knew her said.

Lynn Jackson Dorman remembers Murphy’s “fire engine bright red hair” with matching lipstick, mascara and high-fashion clothes. Murphy married Dorman’s Sunday school teacher, John Murphy III, the executive and publisher of the AFRO American newspaper.

“We thought she was a little bit magical and fascinating. A star in our midst,” Dorman said.

Murphy is survived by her sons Christopher Brooks and Peter Brooks, their wives Donna and Fatima, grandchildren and sisters. A service is being held for her in December at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Havre de Grace.