Billie Holiday (born Elinore Harris;[1] April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day[2] by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Above all, she was admired all over the world for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."[3] She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow, "and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing jazz standards that were written by other people, including "Easy Living" and "Strange Fruit".
John Dillinger Girlfriend Evelyn "Billie" Frechette Residence
Raised Roman Catholic [4], Billie Holiday had an incredibly difficult childhood, which greatly affected both her life and her career. A great deal was revealed about her early life by author Stuart Nicholson in his book, Billie Holiday (1995), which confirmed a considerable amount of information which had been thought not to be true for many years. Her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, which was first published in 1956, is sketchy when it comes to details abut her early life but has been proven by the Nicholson research to be accurate at its roots.
Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, her probable father.[5] At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name Halliday, which was the birth-surname of her father, but eventually changed it to Holiday, his performing name.
There is some controversy regarding Holiday's paternity, stemming from a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives that lists the father as a "Frank DeViese". Some historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker.[6] Despite Billie's later comments, Sadie and Clarence Holiday neither married nor lived together [7] and in fact Frank DeVeazy did live in Philadelphia and may have been known to Sadie through her work.
Billie's mother, Sarah Julia "Sadie" Harris (later Fagan) [8], was thrown out of her parents' home in Sandtown, Baltimore after becoming pregnant at thirteen, and she moved to Philadelphia, where Billie was born Eleanora Fagan. [9] With no support from her parents, Sadie contacted her half sister, Eva Miller, who lived in Baltimore and arranged for Billie to be looked after by her for a while. [10] Sadie often took what was then known as "transportation jobs", leaving Billie to be raised largely by Eva Miller's mother-in-law, Martha Miller. [11] Martha Miller's daughter, Evelyn Miller Conway, attested to the fact that Eleanora had an attitude problem from very early on as a result of her mother leaving her in the care of others for much of the first ten years of her life. [12]
Sadie Harris, now known as Sadie Fagan, married Philip Gough but the marriage was over in two years. [13] Once again Eleanora was left in the care of Martha Miller while Sadie took further transportation jobs. [14]
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