Subject of Biography:	Holiday, Billie
Date of Birth:	Apr. 7, 1915
Date of Death:	1959
Text:	Biography from African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (1993) From African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Dorothy C. Salem, copyright (c) 1993 by Dorothy C. Salem. Reprinted by special arrangement with Garland Publishing. Holiday, Billie 1915-1959     HOLIDAY, BILLIE (1915-1959), often referred to as the most influential jazz singer of all time, lived a life that embraced fame and infamy, triumph and tragedy. Though she is celebrated as a hometown celebrity in Baltimore, she was actually born in Philadelphia on April 7. Born to 13-year-old Sadie Fagan and 18-year-old Clarence Holiday, Billie Holiday started life as Eleanora Fagan. When her parents married three years after her birth, she assumed the Holiday name. Her first name evolved from that of her screen idol, Billie Dove. Since her father was on tour as a musician with the jazz band of Fletcher Henderson, and her mother worked as a maid, young Holiday lived a solitary childhood. Soon the father abandoned the family, leaving the mother struggling to make a living. She left young Holiday with relatives in Baltimore, while she went to New York. At age ten, she was sent to the House of Good Shepherd, a Catholic home for black girls. Records indicate that she had no guardian and was on the streets at this time. Her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, recounted these early years extreme poverty. Holiday remembered working at age six as a babysitter and a stepscrubber. Despite the poverty and separation, Holiday wanted to be with her mother. She finished the fifth grade in the Baltimore schools, and in 1927, she joined her mother in New York to work as a maid. From this time, she and her mother remained close throughout her lifetime.     In New York, Holiday became familiar with jazz, while performing household chores for Alice Dean, a brothel owner. In 1930, desperate to avert eviction from the apartment she shared with her mother, Holiday was forced to take a job as a vocalist at Pod's and Jerry's, a Harlem speakeasy. From that point on, Holiday enjoyed recognition. In 1933 jazz enthusiast John Hammond organized her first recording which launched her public career. She toured with Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw. During this time, tenor Lester Young labeled her "Lady Day."     Holiday's unique blues-inspired jazz singing took subtle liberties with melodies, changing them much the way jazz musicians improvise on instruments. Moreover, Holiday sang simple, mundane lyrics, making them sound significant and urgent. Her sophisticated approach to singing yielded a novel effect. While earlier popular singers only entertained audiences, Holiday both entertained and communicated with her listeners. She conveyed to them in song what she knew about life. Holiday invested her music with a blues feeling that contained not only sadness but also an honesty and a directness of expression. Like the best blues artists, she transformed misery into something apart from trouble and pain. With the release of "Strange Fruit" in 1939, Holiday became a celebrity. Her record was based, on Lewis Allen's poem recounting lynchings in the South. The "strange fruit" was the bodies of the lynched blacks hanging from the branches of the trees. "Strange Fruit" as sang by Holiday became both one of the most powerful pleas for civil rights and her signature song.     In 1941 Holiday married James N. Monroe, a nightclub manager. When her mother died in 1945, Holiday felt alone. Although Holiday enjoyed fame--Jazz Critics Poll (1944), the Metronome Vocalist of the Year (1946), and a film role in New Orleans (1946) in which she was cast as a maid--she was handicapped by her drug addiction. Arrested several times, by 1949, she had divorced. New York denied her a license to perform. She married Louis McKay, her manager, and in 1956, Doubleday published Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, which included the singer's account of her abusive, impoverished childhood and her experiences with racism and drug addiction. Ultimately, the drug and alcohol addiction took their toll. Her last arrest was in her hospital bed for drug possession. She died on July 17, 1959.     --Patricia A. Young Bibliography: Many published accounts of Holiday's life illuminate the various facets of her personality and career. Her autobiography prepared by William Duffy, Lady Sings the Blues (New York: Doubleday), provides details, but the chronology and many factual items cannot be trusted. The first major film on the life of a black woman, Lady Sings the Blues, was based on Holiday's life. Bud Kliment's Billie Holiday (New York: Chelsea House, 1990), looks at the development of her career as a singer. John Chilton's Billie's Blues: Billie Holiday's Story, 1933-1959 (New York: Stein and Day, 1975) includes an extensive bibliography and discography. The most recent book by Robert O'Meally, Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (New York: Arcade, 1991) corrects many of the errors of previous works. Other standard works include James Burnett's Billie Holiday (Spellmount, NY: Hippocrene, 1984) and John White's Billie Holiday: Her Life and Times (New York: Neal, 1987). A short biographical sketch and annotated bibliography by George A. Ryder is included in Notable American Women: The Modern Period, edited by Barbara Sicherman, Carol H. Green, et al. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 346-348.
Profession:	Blues musicians; Singers; Jazz Musicians; Musicians; Singers; Blues Musicians; Jazz Singers