Doria Loyce Ragland (born September 2, 1956)[1][a] is an American former makeup artist, business owner, yoga instructor, clinical therapist and social worker who worked in the mental health sector from 2015 to 2018.[3] Ragland's daughter is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Doria Ragland was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to nurse Jeanette Arnold (1929–2000) and her second husband Alvin Azell Ragland (1929–2011),[4] an antiques dealer who sold items at flea markets.[5] Ragland's maternal grandparents, James and Nettie Arnold, respectively worked as a bellhop and an elevator operator at the Blacks-only Hotel St. Regis on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.[4][6][7] Her parents moved to Los Angeles when Ragland was a baby[4] and later divorced. In 1983, her father married kindergarten teacher Ava Burrow,[8] who is near to Ragland's age; the two remained close after that marriage also ended in divorce.[9] Ragland has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph Jr. and Saundra Johnson, and a younger paternal half-brother, Joffrey Ragland.[10][b]
^According to information passed down (much of it verbally) from earlier generations, the Ragland name came from William Ragland, a Methodist who had emigrated during the eighteenth century from Cornwall, England to North America, settling successively in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.[6] It is inferred by family members that her first identifiable African American Ragland ancestor was Richard Ragland, born in Jonesboro, Georgia, in 1830; he lived long enough to experience the abolition of slavery in 1865.[6]
^The New Yorker magazine mentions that the relationship between Meghan and her mother is close. The article quotes Meghan as saying of their relationship as being an "us against the world". Meghan paid for her mother to attend graduate school when she became wealthy. On Meghan's blog she is quoted as saying in a Mother's Day post "There's no Imitation of Life drama", referring to a film in which a light-skinned daughter that has been passing for white shuns her dark-skinned mother.[3]
^Morton, A. (April 12, 2018). Meghan: A Hollywood Princess(304 pages). Michael O'Mara Books, 2018. p. Chapter 2 – Growing up Markle. ISBN978-1782439653. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved June 15, 2018. She (Doria) also worked as a travel agent....
^Morris, Regan (September 27, 2017). "'Meghan who?' LA shrugs over Harry's hometown girlfriend". BBC News. Archived from the original on September 30, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2017. But Markle's mother lives in the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood, one of the wealthiest primarily African-American areas in the US.