News is spreading fast via email and Facebook that Avery Clayton died of a heart attack on Thanksgiving. He was an artist and executive director of Western States Black Research and Educational Center, but that underplays his project — to create a permanent home in Culver City for his late mother Mayme Clayton's rich archive of African American literature and materials. Avery Clayton was co-curator of the current exhbibit at the Huntington, Central Avenue and Beyond: The Harlem Renaissance in Los Angeles, which features items from the Mayme A. Clayton Library.

* Update: Clayton was 62 and died while hosting Thanksgiving at his home, says the L.A. Times obituary posted tonight.

Previously on LA Observed:
Mayme Clayton's black history treasures