Highlighting The Empress of the Blues

The Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, was born into poverty in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1895, started performing on the streets with her brother Andrew at age 9 to support their (by then) parent-less family. She was given her by Ma Rainey in a dance/singing company, and began her recording career in 1923 despite the amount of discrimination against her. Bessie was large framed, almost 6 feet tall, nearly 200 pounds, very dark-skinned and -something a LOT of people, books and sites seem to magically look over and forget, bisexual. That same year she met and married Jack Gee, while their marriage was full of infidelity on both sides, years later, after catching him with one of her backup singers, she chased him down a railroad track in New York with a shotgun in her hand (THAT is my favorite Bessie story ever). This is probably why you'll see her described as a rough, crude, violent woman, even though she was know to give money to her family and friends on a regular bases to help them support themselves (I'd consider her rather generous). Needless to say, that marriage did not survive, although they never divorced. Bessie become the richest African-American woman of her time, however, this was short lived, for she died in 1937 in a car accident, with her lover Richard Morgan (Lionel Hampton's uncle). Since her death, her music continues to win over new fans and collections of her songs have sold well over the years. Smith has been immortalized in numerous works, including Edward Albee's 1961 play The Death of Bessie Smith.
This is just a glance in to who Bessie was and her life, I strongly encourage you to check out this L I N K to listen to a sample of her music followed by a longer and more indepth look at her life (there text, but for ya'll who, like me, are more visual learned, there's an AWESOME video MiniBio- which started with her singing).