Doria Loyce Ragland (born September 2, 1956)[1][a] is the American mother of
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and the ex-wife of American retired television lighting director and director of photography
Thomas Markle. Ragland holds a degree in social work and is a former makeup artist and
yoga instructor.
Early life
Doria Ragland was born in
Cleveland,
Ohio, to nurse Jeanette Arnold (1929–2000) and her second husband Alvin Azell Ragland (1929–2011),[3] an antiques dealer who sold items at flea markets.[4] Ragland's maternal grandparents, James and Nettie Arnold, respectively worked as a
bellhop and an
elevator operator at the
Hotel St. Regis on
Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.[3][5][6] Her parents moved to
Los Angeles when Ragland was a baby[3] and later divorced. In 1983, her father married kindergarten teacher Ava Burrow,[7] who is near to Ragland's age; the two remained close after that marriage also ended in divorce.[8] Ragland has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph (known as "JJ"; 1949–2021) and Saundra Johnson (born 1952), and a younger paternal half-brother, Alvin Joffrey Ragland.[9] Various contemporary records state that the Ragland family descend from Richard Ragland, born into slavery c.1792 in
Chatham County,
North Carolina; his son, Stephen Ragland (1848-1926) of
Jonesboro in
Georgia, lived long enough to experience the
abolition of slavery in 1865. Ragland's surname came from slave-owner William Ragland, a
Methodist planter and land speculator who had emigrated during the eighteenth century from
Cornwall,
England, to North America.[10][11]
Career and education
After leaving
Fairfax High School,[4] Ragland worked as a temporary assistant makeup artist and met her future husband,
Thomas Markle, while employed on the set of the television show General Hospital. Later on, their daughter Meghan spent time between the two homes as Ragland pursued a career and tertiary education.[12] Ms. Ragland worked as a travel agent and owned a small business.[13] Ragland completed a
Bachelor of Arts in psychology.[4] In 2011, she earned a
Master of Social Work from the
University of Southern California.[14] After passing California's licensing exam in 2015, she was a social worker for three years at the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services clinic in
Culver City.[15][16][17][18] Ragland has also worked as a yoga instructor.[19] In 2020, it was reported that she would teach a jewelry making course at
Santa Monica College.[20] In the same year, Ragland became
CEO,
CFO and secretary of a care home firm in
Beverly Hills, called Loving Kindness Senior Care Management.[21]
^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.