Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin, a queen of Carnival who became a lawyer and philanthropist whose gifts of money, determination and leadership helped save New Orleans’ symphony orchestra, died Saturday in her sleep at her New Orleans home, her granddaughter Mary Beth Benjamin said. She was 93.
While reigning as Rex’s consort in 1953 might represent a pinnacle achievement, it was only a start for Benjamin. After graduating from Newcomb College in 1954, she enrolled in Tulane University’s law school when few women were entering the legal profession.
She practiced law from 1956 to 1958 before retiring to raise children and devote her time and talent to community service.
Although Benjamin and her friends said family was her top priority, service was an ever-present theme in her life because, she said, her parents, William Bell Wisdom and Mary Freeman Wisdom, always stressed the importance of community involvement. The money to back up her zeal came from the Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co., which her grandfather A.B. Freeman had built into a beverage powerhouse.
Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin wearing her father’s Longines watch around her left wrist in 1985.
Benjamin described social activism as a family tradition and served on a long list of committees, most notably the board that ran the New Orleans Symphony, which she joined in 1983.
A music lover whose grandparents had helped found the orchestra in 1936, Benjamin was convinced that every major city needs a symphony. With that determination, she led the board for five years. During that period, the musicians stopped playing because they hadn’t been paid, and Benjamin said she lost count of the number of organizations she addressed in an attempt to rally support to erase the $3 million debt.
“I knew it was in trouble,” she said in a 1985 interview, “but I like that kind of challenge. When you get on a board that doesn’t need you, the challenge isn’t there.”
At that interview, she wore her father’s big Longines watch on her left wrist. She said it was a reminder that “my father felt I could do anything.”
Persistence — and the hundreds of thousands of dollars she contributed — paid off. When Benjamin passed the baton to her successor, the orchestra was debt-free.
In 1991, the ensemble became the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra; it is the oldest full-time musician-governed and collaboratively operated orchestra in the country. It has thrived. Benjamin’s contributions included an endowment for the orchestra’s music director and principal conductor; that position bears her name.
“There would not be a symphony orchestra in New Orleans without Adelaide Benjamin. Full stop,” said Dr. Stephen Hales, a longtime member of the orchestra’s board. “The musicians adored her, and she adored them.”
One of them was Michael Bucalo, a trumpeter. In a 1991 letter to the editor of The Times-Picayune, he wrote: “Mrs. Benjamin has no equal in the community in regards to the energy and personal sacrifice for the symphony. No matter how bad things looked, she was always there with money to bail us out and keep things going.”
A week’s concerts in 1997 were dedicated to her. At the first concert, she received a prolonged standing ovation.
“She was brave,” Hales said. “She persevered.”
Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin gets a surprise birthday serenade from members of the New Orleans Symphony including Alfred Savia, a guest conductor (center picture) and members of their families in 1986.
It was in her DNA, her son Edward “Ned” Benjamin said. “She came from a family of activists. Her parents felt that obligation to serve and try to make the city a better place. When she saw things that could be improved, she wanted to improve them.”
That started in her youth, when she and her mother planted a Victory Garden — mirlitons, green beans and tomatoes — in their Palmer Avenue backyard during World War II. It was part of a national effort to supplement food rations, ease the strain on commercial agriculture and boost morale.
She graduated from the Louise S. McGehee School and enrolled at Hollins College (now Hollins University) but returned home after two years for her debut year and entered Newcomb College.
During that period, she wound up bookending Carnival by reigning over Twelfth Night Revelers on the season’s first night and as Rex’s queen on Mardi Gras night.
After earning undergraduate and law degrees, she joined the firm of Wisdom, Stone, Pigman and Benjamin (now Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann).
She married fellow lawyer Edward Benjamin and retired in 1958 to rear a family.
“Her children were the focus of her life,” said Flora Fenner French, a longtime friend.
For the rest of her life, Benjamin’s passion was volunteering.
“She entered the world of community service when strong, thoughtful women in community service were rare,” Hales said. “She was purposeful and generous with her time. She had a strong moral compass and did not tolerate unfairness. She always stood firm on the right side of issues. If you were on the other side, it wouldn’t go well.”
Among the boards on which she sat were those of family foundations, the Louisiana Museum Foundation, the National D-Day Museum (now the National WWII Museum) and the Louise S. McGehee School.
Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin and Gene Dry at the dinner honoring Louise S. McGehee School Headmistress Eileen Powers honoring her 20 years of service to the school (and her last year at the school), Sept. 13, 2017, at Ralph’s on the Park, New Orleans, La. (photo courtesy of Louise S. McGehee School)
Benjamin, a soprano, sang in the New Orleans Symphony Chorus, the Trinity Episcopal Church Choir and Tulane’s Summer Lyric Theatre.
She graduated in 1982 from the University of the South’s Theological School’s extension program entitled “Education for Ministry,” and she was a mentor for its program for six years.
Loyola University gave her an honorary doctorate, and its President’s Council gave her its Integritas Vitae Award in 1994. The nominating committee said Benjamin “has made it her life’s work to contribute time, talent and treasure to the betterment of our community and its institutions. Her commitment to and love for New Orleans have been proven time and again, and we are a better city for it.”
In discussing her grandmother’s impact, Mary Beth Benjamin said: “She had a deep understanding of legacy. I think she embodied the word legacy because she lived it. It wasn’t what you left when you died, but what you did every day – what you do, what you give, whom you love. She saw it as something you’d leave behind every day, and she did.”
Edward Benjamin died in 2012.
Survivors include two sons, Edward Wisdom “Ned” Benjamin of New Orleans and Stuart Minor Benjamin of Durham, North Carolina; two daughters, Mary Dabney Benjamin of Seattle and Ann Leith Benjamin Hill of Brooklyn, New York; 10 grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter who is named for her.
Having a great-granddaughter bearing her name “was special to her,” Ned Benjamin said. “Her name would live on.”
A funeral will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Ave., New Orleans. Visitation will begin at 11 a.m.
Burial will be private.
Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated to reflect Benjamin’s correct age and to add funeral information.
