Around this time, she first heard the records of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. She found a job running errands in a brothel, and she scrubbed marble steps as well as kitchen and bathroom floors of neighborhood homes. Holiday was released in February 1927, when she was nearly 12. Officials placed Eleanora in the House of the Good Shepherd under protective custody as a state witness in the rape case. She successfully fought back, and Rich was arrested. On December 24, 1926, Sadie came home to discover a neighbor, Wilbur Rich, attempting to rape Eleanora. Sadie had opened a restaurant, the East Side Grill, and mother and daughter worked long hours there. After nine months, she was 'paroled' on October 3, 1925, to her mother. She was sent to the House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reform school for African-American girls. Frances Academy, she frequently skipped school, and her truancy resulted in her being brought before the juvenile court on January 5, 1925, when she was nine years old. Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, published in 1956, is inconsistent regarding details of her early life, but much was confirmed by Stuart Nicholson in his 1995 biography of the singer.Īfter attending kindergarten at St. Holiday was raised largely by Eva Miller's mother-in-law, Martha Miller, and suffered from her mother's absences and being in others' care for her first decade of life. Her mother often took what were then known as 'transportation jobs', serving on passenger railroads. Holiday, aged two, in 1917Įleanora grew up in Baltimore and had a very difficult childhood. Sadie Harris, then known as Sadie Fagan, married Philip Gough in 1920, but the marriage ended within two years. DeViese lived in Philadelphia, and Sadie Harris may have known him through her work. Other historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker. Some historians have disputed Holiday's paternity, as a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives lists her father as 'Frank DeViese'. Not long after Eleanora was born, Clarence abandoned his family to pursue a career as a jazz banjo player and guitarist. With no support from her parents, she made arrangements with her older, married half-sister, Eva Miller, for Eleanora to stay with her in Baltimore. Sarah moved to Philadelphia at age 19, after she was evicted from her parents' home in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, for becoming pregnant. Life and career 1915–1929: Childhood Įleanora Fagan was born on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia to African American unwed teenage couple Clarence Halliday and Sarah Julia 'Sadie' Fagan. Several films about her life have been released, most recently The United States vs. She was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR and was ranked fourth on the Rolling Stone list of '200 Greatest Singers of All Time' (2023). In 2000, she was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence their website states that 'Billie Holiday changed jazz forever'. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

Holiday won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959, at age 44. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958. Because of personal struggles and an altered voice, her final recordings were met with mixed reaction but were mild commercial successes. She was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s with two further sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson produced the hit ' What a Little Moonlight Can Do', which became a jazz standard. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Īfter a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who liked her voice. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Nicknamed ' Lady Day' by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Ap– July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer.

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