Doria Loyce Ragland (born September 1956) is an American social worker in the mental health sector. Born in Cleveland, she grew up in Los Angeles where she continues to live. She is the mother of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, from her former marriage to Thomas Markle.
Video Doria Ragland
Early life
Born in September 1956, to an African-American family in Cleveland, Ohio, Doria Ragland is the daughter of Jeanette Arnold (d. 2000) and her second husband Alvin Ragland (d. 2011). Her mother was a nurse and her father was an antique dealer. Ragland's maternal grandparents, James and Netty Arnold, worked as a bellhop and an elevator operator, respectively, at the whites-only Hotel St. Regis on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. When Ragland was a baby, her parents moved to Los Angeles. She attended Fairfax High School. Ragland's parents divorced, and in 1983 her father married Ava Burrow, who is close to Ragland's age and to whom Ragland remained close after that marriage also ended in divorce. Ragland has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph Jr. and Saundra Johnson, and a younger paternal half-brother, Joffrey Ragland. Ragland is descended from African Americans enslaved in Georgia.
Maps Doria Ragland
Career and education
After high school, Ragland worked as a make-up artist, where she later met her former husband Thomas Markle while employed at the studio for the television show General Hospital. She later worked as a travel agent and attained a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. In 2015, Ragland became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker after having received a Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California. Ragland worked as a social worker for a mental health clinic, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, in Culver City, California. Ragland resigned from the clinic in May 2018 to enter private practice working with elderly patients. Ragland has also worked as a yoga instructor.
Personal life
Ragland married lighting director Thomas Markle, at Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in Hollywood by Brother Bhaktananda on December 23, 1979. She and Markle had a daughter, Rachel Meghan Markle (known as Meghan), on August 4, 1981. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1987 or 1988. The couple remain friends, and both contributed to the raising of their daughter.
Ragland resides in View Park-Windsor Hills, California, in a house she inherited from her father in 2011. She has accompanied her daughter to public events such as the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Invictus Games. She attended the wedding of her daughter and Prince Harry, a member of the British royal family, in 2018. She was the only member of Meghan Markle's side of the family present at the royal wedding, which was held at Windsor Castle, England.
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Source of article : Wikipedia
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