Webster, Benjamin Sweeney, Sr.

Webster was a Kentucky native, the son of James and Marie L. Webster. A mortician and salesman, Benjamin was the father of poet Toi Derricotte (b. 1941 in Detroit, MI) and the husband of Antonia Baquet (Webster) Cyrus until they divorced in 1953. The Webster Family owned the Webster Funeral Home in Detroit, MI. For more see M. Salij, "The poetry of black and white Detroit native Toi Derricotte reaches inside herself to write about race," 04/27/2001, and "Antonia Cyrus: family historian, animal lover," 10/20/2001, both articles in the Detroit Free Press. For more on Derricotte see the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature.