Anais Francique February 10, 2015 Black History Research HB: 318/ Mr. T. Fisher
The Most Powerful Singer Billie Holiday
April 15, 1915 – July 17, 1959 (aged 44)
Early Life Eleanora Fagan Holiday was born on April 15, 1915 into poverty in Philadelphia as her mother (Sarah Julia Fagan) was just 13 and was not married to her father (Clarence Holiday).
Billie was attended at a Catholic Reform School and she was raped and had confessed to the school and was sent home (aged 10). On that day she didn’t finished school. Billie Holiday only have one sibling, a half sister, named Eva Miller.
Interesting Facts
In 1928, Holiday took a job as a singer at Jerry Preston’s Log Cabin in New York City. She found that she has a powerful voice, full of expression, but she was unable to settle to a job and moved to nightclub to nightclub. Her first song were ‘Son in Law’ and ‘Riffin’ the Scotch’ released in 1933, which sold 300 and 5,000 copies respectively Other hits included 'What a Little Moonlight Can Do' and 'Miss Brown to You', which helped establish Holiday as an artist in her own right. In 1959, Billie Holiday was hospitalized and, on July 17, 1959, she died of cirrhosis of the lever, aged just 44 and with 70 cents in the bank
Why does my Person Deserved to be inducted into the Black History Hall of Fame? I feel like Billie Holiday deserved to be inducted into the Black History Hall of Fame because even though she had went through troubles in her childhood. But one thing is that she was so persistence and fight through her trouble and suffering. Billie holiday never had the chance to finished school; the age she dropped out was when she was 10 - 11 years old. But she had to move on her life, so she fined a job that gave her the ability to sing and perform. She didn’t have chance to settle a job, so she went from nightclubs to nightclubs. One that day (1928) she had found out her real talent was singing and she recognized that she had a really powerful voice and full of expression. So what Billie Holiday is trying to say even you went through troubles in the past, it doesn’t affect on
the future. And remember there is a special talent on each person; you just have to find it and go on with that talent.