Who Is Myrna Colley-Lee?
Myrna Colley-Lee is an American costume designer and arts patron whose career has earned lasting respect in American theater. Although many people know her through her former marriage to actor Morgan Freeman, her professional story stands on its own. She began working in theater during the late 1960s and became associated with the Black Theatre Movement. Over the decades, her work has covered costumes, scenic design, art direction, exhibitions, and arts advocacy. Arizona Theatre Company notes that she has designed costumes for more than 70 productions and two films across roughly 50 theaters and venues, demonstrating the breadth of her creative career.
| Quick Bio | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Myrna Colley-Lee |
| Profession | Costume Designer, Arts Patron |
| Birthplace | North Carolina |
| Education | University of North Carolina; Temple University |
| Known For | Theater Costume Design |
| Former Husband | Morgan Freeman |
| Career Began | Late 1960s |
| Major Specialty | Costume and Scenic Design |
| 2022 Honor | Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award |
| Notable Collaborations | August Wilson productions |
Early Life and Background
Myrna Colley-Lee was born in North Carolina and developed an artistic path that eventually led her into professional theater. Public records and biographies vary on some personal details, so exact birth information should be treated cautiously. A Mississippi legislative resolution identifies her as a North Carolina native and highlights her long connection with Mississippi. Her background became important to her artistic identity because her career combined formal design education with a strong interest in African American cultural expression. Rather than pursuing fame in front of the camera, she built a reputation through visual storytelling and detailed theatrical craftsmanship.
Education and Artistic Training
Myrna Colley-Lee received formal training that prepared her for a career spanning scenic and costume design. A Mississippi Senate and House resolution states that she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic and Costume Design from Temple University. Her education gave her a foundation in both visual composition and practical stage design. That combination later allowed her to work across different theatrical departments and understand how costumes interact with scenery, lighting, movement, character, and historical setting.
Beginning a Theater Career
Myrna Colley-Lee entered the theater profession in the late 1960s, a period when Black theater was experiencing important growth and renewed visibility. PlayMakers Repertory Company describes her as one of the forefront costume designers associated with the Black Theatre Movement. Her early professional years helped establish the design language that would shape her later work. Theater offered her an opportunity to explore history, identity, community, and character through clothing. Instead of treating costumes as decoration, she approached them as an essential part of storytelling and performance.
Role in the Black Theatre Movement
The Black Theatre Movement became an important cultural force during the late twentieth century, and her career developed alongside that movement. Her design work contributed to productions that centered Black stories, writers, performers, and communities. PlayMakers credits her with work on several major plays, including productions connected to August Wilson and other important American dramatists. Her contribution is significant because costume design can communicate social class, period, personality, occupation, family history, and cultural identity before a performer speaks a word.
Career as a Costume Designer
Myrna Colley-Lee built an extensive résumé as a costume designer, working at theaters across the United States. Arizona Theatre Company says she has designed costumes for more than 70 productions and two films at about 50 different theaters and venues. Her credits demonstrate unusual range, covering classic plays, contemporary works, historical dramas, and major works by Black playwrights. Costume design requires research, visual judgment, collaboration, and practical knowledge of fabrics and movement. Her long career shows how successfully she combined those skills with a distinctive understanding of character and place.
August Wilson Collaborations
August Wilson’s plays have been an especially important part of her design legacy. Her work includes productions of Fences, The Piano Lesson, Radio Golf, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, among other Wilson-related projects. Crossroads Theatre Company describes her as the costume designer for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and notes that it was her sixth August Wilson play. Arizona Theatre Company also highlights her work on Fences. These collaborations allowed her to interpret complex African American characters and historical settings through carefully researched clothing, helping audiences understand the worlds created by Wilson.
Notable Theater Productions
Myrna Colley-Lee has worked on a wide variety of notable productions throughout her career. Her documented credits include The Ballad of Emmett Till, Gee’s Bend, Becoming Adele, Wedding Band, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Relativity, Forest City, and several productions of Fences. Goodman Theatre records her costume design for The Ballad of Emmett Till and lists several of her other designs. These productions illustrate the breadth of her interests. She has moved comfortably between historical subjects, family dramas, musical theater, and contemporary stories while maintaining a strong visual sense.
Work on Fences
Her work on Fences has been particularly recurring throughout her career. Arizona Theatre Company notes that she designed August Wilson’s Fences for the fourth time in one collaboration with director Ricardo Khan. Another production guide from New Stage Theatre also credits her as costume designer. Returning to the same play in different productions can be creatively demanding because designers must respond to new directors, actors, venues, and interpretations. Her repeated involvement demonstrates how valuable her understanding of Wilson’s characters and dramatic world has remained across decades.
Film and Television Credits
Myrna Colley-Lee’s work has also extended beyond the stage. IMDb lists her costume and wardrobe work on Frederick Douglass: An American Life, a 1985 short production. The Mississippi legislative resolution further states that she served as a costume designer, art director, and set designer for film productions. She also appeared on 60 Minutes in a segment connected with Morgan Freeman. These credits show that her skills were adaptable to screen work, although theater remained the central focus of her professional identity.
Exhibitions of Her Designs
Her costume designs have also been presented as visual art. Goodman Theatre notes that the Mississippi Museum of Art presented an exhibition titled GladRags: Sketches, Swatches and Costume Designs by Myrna Colley-Lee, which later toured throughout Mississippi. The exhibitions demonstrate that her creative process has value beyond individual performances. Sketches, fabric samples, and costume plans can reveal the research and imagination behind a finished production. By displaying these materials, museums and cultural institutions have helped audiences appreciate costume design as an independent artistic discipline rather than an invisible backstage service.
Awards and Recognition
Myrna Colley-Lee has received substantial recognition for her contribution to design and the arts. Goodman Theatre lists awards including the Outstanding Costume Design Award from the National Black Theatre Festival, the Wynona Lee Fletcher Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Designer, and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2022, she received the Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Costume Design and Arts Patron. Such recognition reflects both artistic achievement and her broader contribution to cultural life.
Mississippi Arts Connection
Mississippi became an important part of her personal and professional life. A 2022 Mississippi legislative resolution describes her as a longtime resident of Charleston in Tallahatchie County and recognizes her work across the country. It also notes her involvement with the Mississippi Arts Commission and other cultural institutions. Her connection to Mississippi demonstrates how a nationally active designer can remain deeply connected to a local community. Through arts organizations, exhibitions, boards, and cultural projects, she has contributed to the state’s creative ecosystem.
Arts Advocacy and Philanthropy
Myrna Colley-Lee has contributed to the arts beyond costume design. Goodman Theatre states that she co-founded the SonEdna Foundation, which supports literary arts in the Mississippi Delta. The Mississippi resolution also identifies her as a founding member of organizations connected with African American writers, the Rock River Foundation, and the Charleston Arts and Revitalization Effort. Her advocacy shows a broader understanding of creativity: strong communities need writers, designers, performers, museums, educators, and spaces where cultural work can grow.
Connection With the SonEdna Foundation
The SonEdna Foundation became one of the notable cultural initiatives associated with her public work. Goodman Theatre describes the organization as supporting literary arts in the Mississippi Delta. The foundation’s name reflects the importance of writers and storytelling within the region. Her involvement suggests that her interests extend beyond theater production itself. Supporting literature complements costume design because both fields depend on imagination, historical understanding, character development, and cultural memory. Her arts advocacy therefore forms a natural extension of the values visible throughout her professional career.
Marriage to Morgan Freeman
Myrna Colley-Lee married actor Morgan Freeman in 1984, and their relationship brought her additional public attention. According to records summarized by Wikipedia and IMDb, the couple married on June 16, 1984, separated in December 2007, and finalized their divorce in September 2010. Their marriage lasted more than two decades. Freeman’s international fame meant that public interest in her personal life often centered on their relationship. Nevertheless, her professional achievements existed independently, beginning years before and continuing beyond her years of marriage.
Life After Divorce
Following the end of her marriage, her career and cultural work continued to receive recognition. Public interest often frames her as Morgan Freeman’s former wife, but theater institutions emphasize her independent achievements as a designer. Arizona Theatre Company, PlayMakers Repertory Company, and Goodman Theatre all document substantial professional credits. Her post-divorce story therefore provides a useful reminder that a person’s public identity can contain far more than a famous relationship. Her creative work, awards, exhibitions, and community involvement remain central to understanding her legacy.
Artistic Style and Design Philosophy
Myrna Colley-Lee’s design philosophy can be understood through the range of productions she has served. Costume designers must balance historical accuracy with theatrical clarity, ensuring that clothing supports character while remaining practical for performance. Her work on plays by August Wilson particularly required sensitivity to African American history and everyday life. Her designs have helped establish period, social position, personality, and emotional context. Because costume operates visually, a successful design can communicate information immediately. Her long career indicates an ability to make those visual choices serve the larger goals of directors, playwrights, and performers.
Cultural Legacy
The cultural legacy of her work extends beyond individual productions. By contributing to Black theater and preserving design materials, she has helped strengthen the visibility of African American theatrical history. The Mississippi State University Library holds a permanent collection of her clothing and costumes, according to the 2022 legislative resolution. Such collections can help students, researchers, and future designers understand how professional costumes were conceived and produced. Her legacy therefore exists both onstage, where audiences experience the finished work, and in archives, where the creative process can be studied.
Influence on Future Designers
Myrna Colley-Lee’s career offers an example for designers who want to combine professional excellence with cultural purpose. Her work demonstrates that costume design can be both technically demanding and historically meaningful. She has worked across institutions, collaborated with major directors and playwrights, and supported arts organizations in her community. For emerging designers, her career illustrates the value of education, persistence, collaboration, research, and artistic curiosity. Her influence is especially relevant to artists interested in telling stories that reflect Black history and American cultural experience.
Public Interest and Privacy
Because of her connection with Morgan Freeman, public curiosity about her personal life has often been high. Yet much of the reliable documentation about her focuses on professional achievements rather than private details. Theater organizations provide extensive information about her productions, awards, exhibitions, and artistic affiliations, while public records confirm major milestones in her education and career. A balanced biography should therefore distinguish documented professional facts from unverified personal claims. This approach gives readers a clearer picture of a designer whose accomplishments deserve attention independently of celebrity relationships.
Current Professional Legacy
Myrna Colley-Lee remains associated with a body of work that spans several generations of American theater. Arizona Theatre Company recently highlighted her continued design activity and cited projects such as Trouble in Mind and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Its profile also notes that she received the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in Costume Design in 2022. Her continued recognition shows that her contribution is not simply historical. The work she created and the institutions that preserve it continue to influence how audiences and artists understand costume design.
Why Her Story Matters
Myrna Colley-Lee’s story matters because it brings together theater, Black cultural history, visual art, education, and community service. Her career challenges the tendency to define accomplished women only through their relationships with famous men. Her professional record includes dozens of productions, major awards, exhibitions, arts organizations, and educational achievements. Her work also demonstrates the power of behind-the-scenes artists. Actors may receive the most visible attention, but designers shape how audiences see the world of a story. Her legacy makes that creative contribution easier to recognize.
Legacy in American Theater
The lasting legacy of Myrna Colley-Lee is rooted in sustained creative work rather than celebrity. Her career began in the late 1960s and developed through theater companies, museums, educational institutions, and arts organizations. Her extensive August Wilson credits, exhibitions, awards, and community activities show a designer committed to both craft and culture. The permanent collection of her costumes at Mississippi State University provides another way for her work to remain accessible to future generations. Her influence is therefore preserved through performances, archives, exhibitions, and the designers who learn from her example.
Conclusion
Myrna Colley-Lee represents a remarkable chapter in American costume and Black theater history. Her career demonstrates how visual design can deepen storytelling while preserving cultural memory. Although her marriage to Morgan Freeman brought public attention, her professional accomplishments stand independently through decades of theater work, major collaborations, awards, exhibitions, and arts advocacy. Reliable theater institutions and Mississippi public records document a career that reaches far beyond celebrity headlines. For readers exploring her biography, the most useful perspective is to see Myrna Colley-Lee first as an accomplished designer and arts patron whose creative legacy continues to matter in 2026.
FAQs
1. Who is Myrna Colley-Lee? – She is an American costume designer, arts patron, and former wife of Morgan Freeman whose career spans decades of theater and cultural work.
2. What is Myrna Colley-Lee known for? – She is best known professionally for costume design, especially her work with Black theater and productions of August Wilson’s plays.
3. When did Myrna Colley-Lee marry Morgan Freeman? – They married on June 16, 1984, separated in 2007, and finalized their divorce in 2010.
4. What awards has Myrna Colley-Lee received? – Her honors include the National Black Theatre Festival’s Outstanding Costume Design Award and the 2022 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Costume Design and Arts Patron.
5. Where can readers find more information? – Readers can explore theater archives, museum collections, and related biographical resources for additional background.
For related information, readers can visit Morgan Freeman on Wikipedia or explore theater organizations that document her professional work.
