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Fannie Mae Duncan and friends stand on the street in front of the Cotton Club in 1955. The neon sign on the building reads “Duncan’s Cafe — Bar — Lounge.” Duncan graduated from the integrated Colorado Springs High School (now Palmer High) in 1938, the first in her family to get a diploma, according to a Nov. 5, 2018, Gazette article. She went into business for herself at age 26. Duncan bought the building that would become Duncan’s Cafe and later the Cotton Club across from the Antlers hotel, when she was just 28. Photograph by Lew Tilley, Courtesy of Pikes Peak Library District, 099-10714