Ethel Waters - wikipedia Ethel Waters Ethel Waters Waters, 1943. Background information Also known as Ethel Howard ( 1896 - 10 - 31 ) October 31, 1896 Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. September 1, 1977 ( 1977 - 09 - 01 ) ( aged 80 ) Chatsworth, California, U.S. Genres Jazz Gospel Blues Occupation ( s ) Actress singer Instruments Vocals Years active 1918 -- 1977 Associated acts Fletcher Henderson Lena Horne Bessie Smith Billie Holiday Ethel Waters ( October 31, 1896 -- September 1, 1977 ) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Waters notable recordings include `` Dinah '', `` Stormy Weather '', `` Taking a Chance on Love '', `` Heat Wave '', `` Supper Time '', `` Am I Blue ? '', `` Cabin in the Sky '', `` I 'm Coming Virginia '', and her version of the spiritual `` His Eye Is on the Sparrow ''. Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award. She was also the first African - American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Private life 4 Hit records 4.1 Notes 5 Filmography 5.1 Features 5.2 Short subjects 5.3 Television 6 Stage appearances 7 Awards and honors 7.1 Grammy Hall of Fame 7.2 National Recording Registry 7.3 Legacy 7.4 Hollywood Walk of Fame 7.5 Chester Historical Marker 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Early Life Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1896, as a result of the rape of her teenaged mother, Louise Anderson ( believed to have been 13 years old at the time, although some sources indicate she may have been slightly older ), by John Waters, a pianist and family acquaintance from a mixed - race middle - class background. He played no role in raising Ethel. Soon after she was born, her mother married Norman Howard, a railroad worker. Ethel used the surname Howard as a child, before reverting to her father 's name. She was raised in poverty by her grandmother, Sally Anderson, who worked as a housemaid, along with two of her aunts and an uncle. Waters never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She said of her difficult childhood, `` I never was a child. I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family. '' Waters grew tall, standing 5 ' 91⁄2 '' in her teens. According to the jazz historian and archivist Rosetta Reitz, Waters 's birth in the North and her peripatetic life exposed her to many cultures. Waters married at the age of 13, but her husband was abusive, and she soon left the marriage and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel, working for $4.75 per week. On her 17th birthday, she attended a costume party at a nightclub on Juniper Street. She was persuaded to sing two songs and impressed the audience so much that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore. She later recalled that she earned the rich sum of ten dollars a week, but her managers cheated her out of the tips her admirers threw on the stage. Career Waters being inducted into Zeta Phi Eta at the University of Michigan, 1957. After her start in Baltimore, Waters toured on the black vaudeville circuit. As she described it later, `` I used to work from nine until unconscious. '' Despite her early success, she fell on hard times and joined a carnival, traveling in freight cars along the carnival circuit and eventually reaching Chicago. Waters enjoyed her time with the carnival and recalled, `` the roustabouts and the concessionaires were the kind of people I 'd grown up with, rough, tough, full of larceny towards strangers, but sentimental and loyal to their friends and co-workers. '' She did not last long with them, though, and soon headed south to Atlanta, where she worked in the same club with Bessie Smith. Smith demanded that Waters not compete in singing blues opposite her. Waters conceded and sang ballads and popular songs. Around 1919, Waters moved to Harlem and there became a celebrity performer in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Her first Harlem job was at Edmond 's Cellar, a club with a black patronage, where she specialized in popular ballads. She acted in a blackface comedy, Hello 1919. The jazz historian Rosetta Reitz pointed out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country. In 1921, Waters became the fifth black woman to make a record, for the tiny Cardinal Records. She later joined Black Swan Records, where Fletcher Henderson was her accompanist. Waters later commented that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she preferred, often lacking `` the damn - it - to - hell bass. '' Waters circa 1938 -- 48. She recorded with Black Swan from 1921 through 1923. In early 1924, Paramount bought the Black Swan label, and she stayed with Paramount through that year. She first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925, achieving a hit with `` Dinah '', which was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. ( From her start at Columbia, the label split her records initially with the more bluesey songs issued on their 14000 - D race series and her versions of popular songs on their regular popular series. ) Soon after, she started working with Pearl Wright, and together they toured in the South. In 1924, Waters played at the Plantation Club on Broadway. She also toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. With Earl Dancer, she joined what was called the `` white time '' Keith Vaudeville Circuit, a vaudeville circuit performing for white audiences and combined with screenings of silent movies. They received rave reviews in Chicago and earned the unheard - of salary of US $1,250 in 1928. In September 1926, Waters recorded `` I 'm Coming Virginia '', composed by Donald Heywood with lyrics by Will Marion Cook. She is often wrongly attributed as the author. The following year, Waters first sang it in a production of Africana at Broadway 's Daly 's Sixty - Third Street Theatre. In 1929, Waters and Pearl Wright arranged the unreleased Harry Akst song `` Am I Blue ? '', which then was used in the movie On with the Show and became a hit and her signature song. Although she was considered a blues singer during the pre-1925 period, Waters sang in the vaudeville style of Mamie Smith, Viola McCoy, and Lucille Hegamin. While with Columbia, she introduced many popular standards, including `` Dinah '', `` Heebie Jeebies '', `` Sweet Georgia Brown '', `` Someday, Sweetheart '', `` Am I Blue ? '' and `` ( What Did I Do to Be So ) Black and Blue '' on the popular series, while she continued to sing blues ( `` West End Blues, '' `` Organ Grinder Blues, '' etc. ) on Columbia 's 14000 race series. During the 1920s, Waters performed and was recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook and Lovie Austin. As her career continued, she evolved toward being a blues and Broadway singer, performing with artists such as Duke Ellington. She remained with Columbia through 1931. She signed with Brunswick Records in 1932 and remained until 1933, when she went back to Columbia. She signed with Decca Records in late 1934 for only two sessions, and later a single session in early 1938. She recorded for the specialty label Liberty Music Shop Records in 1935 and again in 1940. In 1933, Waters appeared a satirical all - black film, Rufus Jones for President, which featured the child performer Sammy Davis Jr. as Rufus Jones. She went on to star at the Cotton Club, where, according to her autobiography, she `` sang ' Stormy Weather ' from the depths of the private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated. '' In 1933, she had a featured role in the wildly successful Irving Berlin Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer, with Clifton Webb, Marilyn Miller, and Helen Broderick, in which she was the first black woman to integrate the Great White Way. She had three gigs at this point ; in addition to the show, she was a singer for Jack Denny & His Orchestra on a national radio program and continued to work in nightclubs. She was the highest - paid performer of any race on Broadway at that time. Reprising her stage role of 1940, she starred as Petunia in the successful 1942 film Cabin in the Sky, an all - black musical directed by Vincente Minnelli, for which MGM cast Lena Horne as the ingenue. In this same period, she became the first African American to star in her own television show in 1939, contrary to popular belief, decades before Nat King Cole appeared on the small screen in 1956. The Ethel Waters Show, a variety special, appeared on NBC on June 4, 1939 ; it included a dramatic performance of her self - produced Broadway play Mamba 's Daughters, based in the Gullah community of South Carolina. The play was based on a book of the same name by DuBose Heyward. Waters with Count Basie in Stage Door Canteen ( 1943 ). She began to work with Fletcher Henderson again in the late 1940s. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film Pinky ( 1949 ), under the direction of Elia Kazan, after the original director, John Ford, quit over disagreements with Waters. According to producer Darryl F. Zanuck, Ford `` hated that old... woman ( Waters ). '' Ford, Kazan stated, `` did n't know how to reach Ethel Waters. '' Kazan later referred to Waters 's `` truly odd combination of old - time religiosity and free - flowing hatred. ''. In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding. Waters and Harris reprised their roles in the 1952 film version, Member of the Wedding. In 1950, Waters was the first African American actress to star in the television series Beulah. It was first nationally broadcast weekly television series starring an African - American in the leading role appearing on ABC television from 1950 to 1953. Waters quit after complaining that the portrayal of blacks was `` degrading '' and was replaced by Louise Beavers in its third season. She later guest - starred in 1957 and 1959 on NBC 's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In the 1957 episode, she sang `` Cabin in the Sky ''. Despite these successes, her brilliant career was fading. She lost tens of thousands in jewelry and cash in a robbery, and she had difficulties with the IRS. Her health suffered, and she worked only sporadically in the following years. In 1950 -- 51 she wrote her autobiography His Eye Is on the Sparrow with Charles Samuels, in which she wrote candidly about her life. She explained why her age had often been misstated : her friends had to sign a paper claiming Waters was four years younger than she was to get a group insurance deal ; she stated that she was born in 1900. His Eye Is on the Sparrow was adapted for a stage production in which she was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson. In her second autobiography, To Me, It 's Wonderful, Waters stated that she was born in 1896. Private Life In her later years, Waters often toured with the preacher Billy Graham on his `` crusades ''. Waters died on September 1, 1977, aged 80, from uterine cancer, kidney failure, and other ailments, in Chatsworth, California. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park ( Glendale ). Waters was the great - aunt of the singer - songwriter Crystal Waters. Hit Records Year Single US chart 1921 `` Down Home Blues '' 5 `` There 'll Be Some Changes Made '' 5 1922 `` Spread Yo ' Stuff '' 7 `` Tiger Rag '' 14 1923 `` Georgia Blues '' 10 1925 `` Sweet Georgia Brown '' 6 1926 `` Dinah '' `` I 've Found a New Baby '' 11 `` Sugar '' 9 1927 `` I 'm Coming, Virginia '' 10 1929 `` Am I Blue ? '' `` Birmingham Bertha '' 20 `` True Blue Lou '' 15 1931 `` Three Little Words '' 8 `` I Got Rhythm '' 17 `` You Ca n't Stop Me from Loving You '' 13 `` Shine On, Harvest Moon '' 9 `` River, Stay ' Way from My Door '' 18 1933 `` Stormy Weather '' `` Do n't Blame Me '' 6 `` Heat Wave '' 7 `` A Hundred Years from Today '' 7 1934 `` Come Up and See Me Sometime '' 9 `` Miss Otis Regrets ( She 's Unable to Lunch Today ) '' 19 1938 `` You 're a Sweetheart '' 16 Notes Jump up ^ Joel Whitburn 's methodology for creating pre-1940s chart positions has been criticised, and those listed here should not be taken as definitive. Filmography Features On with the Show ( 1929 ) Rufus Jones for President ( 1933 ) Gift of Gab ( 1934 ) Tales of Manhattan ( 1942 ) Cairo ( 1942 ) Cabin in the Sky ( 1943 ) Stage Door Canteen ( 1943 ) Pinky ( 1949 ) The Member of the Wedding ( 1952 ) Carib Gold ( 1957 ) The Heart Is a Rebel ( 1958 ) The Sound and the Fury ( 1959 ) Short subjects Rufus Jones for President ( 1933 ) Bubbling Over ( 1934 ) Let My People Live ( 1939 ) Television TV guest appearances from 1950 to 1952 on The Jackie Gleason Show, Texaco Star Theater, This Is Show Business, What 's My Line ?, and The Chesterfield Supper Club Person to Person ( 1954 ) Route 66, episode `` Good Night, Sweet Blues '' ( 1961 ) The Hollywood Palace, hosted by Diana Ross and the Supremes ( 1969 ) Daniel Boone, episode `` Mamma Cooper '' ( 1970 ) Stage appearances Hello 1919 ! ( 1919 ) Jump Steady ( 1922 ) Plantation Revue ( 1925 ) Black Bottom ( 1926 ) Miss Calico ( 1926 -- 27 ) Paris Bound ( 1927 ) Africana ( 1927 ) The Ethel Waters Broadway Revue ( 1928 ) Lew Leslie 's Blackbirds ( 1930 ) Rhapsody in Black ( 1931 ) Broadway to Harlem ( 1932 ) As Thousands Cheer ( 1933 -- 34 ) At Home Abroad ( 1935 -- 36 ) Mamba 's Daughters ( 1939 -- 40 ) Cabin in the Sky ( 1940 -- 41 ) Laugh Time ( 1943 ) Blue Holiday ( 1945 ) The Member of the Wedding ( 1950 -- 51 ) At Home with Ethel Waters ( 1953 ) The Voice of Strangers ( 1956 ) Awards and honors Grammy Hall of Fame Three recordings by Waters were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy Award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty - five years old and have `` qualitative or historical significance. '' Ethel Waters : Grammy Hall of Fame Awards Year Title Genre Label Year inducted 1929 `` Am I Blue ? '' Traditional Pop ( Single ) Columbia 2007 1933 `` Stormy Weather '' ( Keeps Rainin ' All The Time ) Jazz ( Single ) Brunswick 2003 1925 `` Dinah '' Traditional Pop ( Single ) Columbia 1998 National Recording Registry Waters ' recording of `` Stormy Weather '' ( 1933 ) was listed in the National Recording Registry by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress in 2003. Legacy Year Title Organization Result Notes 2007 Christian Music Hall of Fame Inducted 29 - cents commemorative stamp U.S. Postal Service Honoree Photo ( Scott # 2851 ) Gospel Music Hall of Fame Inducted 1962 Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Series Emmy Awards Nominee Route 66 `` Goodnight Sweet Blues '' 1949 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award Nominee Pinky ( film ) Hollywood Walk of Fame Waters was approved for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. However, as of 2014, the star has not been funded, and public fundraising efforts continue. Chester historical marker In 2015, a historical marker memorializing Waters was unveiled along Route 291 in Chester, Pennsylvania to recognize her life and talents in the city of her birth. References Jump up ^ McElrath, Jessica. `` Remembering the Career of Ethel Waters ''. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2009. Jump up ^ Ethel Waters. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 25 September 2016. ^ Jump up to : Robinson, Alice M. ; Roberts, Vera Mowry ; Barranger, Milly ( eds. ). Notable Women in the American Theatre : A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut. p. 903. Jump up ^ Waters, Ethel ; Samuels, Charles T. ( 1951 ). His Eye on the Sparrow : An Autobiography. New York : Doubleday. Jump up ^ `` 50th Year for Lincoln Theater ''. Baltimore Afro American. September 12, 1959. Retrieved March 17, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Waters, Ethel ''. Current Biography. H.W. Wilson : 899 -- 900. 1941. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 06. Jump up ^ Waters, Ethel ; Samuels, Charles T. ( 1992 ). His Eye on the Sparrow : An Autobiography. New York : Da Capo Press. p. 147. Jump up ^ Russell, Tony ( 1997 ). The Blues : From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai : Carlton Books. p. 12. ISBN 1 - 85868 - 255 - X. Jump up ^ `` I 'm Coming Virginia ( 1927 ) ''. Jazzstandards.com. Retrieved 14 March 2017. Jump up ^ Bogle, Donald ( 2011 ). Heat Wave : The Life and Career of Ethel Waters. HarperCollins. p. 656. ISBN 9780062041722. Jump up ^ `` First Black Seen on Television ''. Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 01. Jump up ^ `` Waters, Ethel : Africana. The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience '' ( 2nd ed. ). doi : 10.1093 / aasc / 9780195170559.013. 4039. Jump up ^ `` Mamba 's Daughters Broadway @ Empire Theatre - Tickets and Discounts Playbill ''. Playbill. Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 01. Jump up ^ Eyman, Scott ( 1999 ). Print the Legend : The Life and Times of John Ford. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 361. Jump up ^ `` Beulah ''. Archive of American Television. Retrieved 2017 - 03 - 01. Jump up ^ Bourne, Stephen ( 2007 ). Ethel Waters : Stormy Weather. Lanham, Maryland : Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0 - 8108 - 5902 - 5. Retrieved November 25, 2010. Jump up ^ Waters, Ethel ( 1972 ). To Me, It 's Wonderful. New York : Harper & Row. OCLC 329566. Jump up ^ White, Alvin E. ( November 19, 1977 ). `` Ethel Waters Remembered ''. The Afro American. Retrieved November 16, 2010. Jump up ^ Bogle, Donald ( 2011 ). Heat Wave : The Life and Career of Ethel Waters. New York : HarperCollins. Jump up ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places : The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons ( 3d ed. ). McFarland & Company. Kindle edition. Kindle location 49813. Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel ( 1986 ). Pop Memories : 1890 - 1954. Record Research. ISBN 0 - 89820 - 083 - 0. Jump up ^ `` Joel Whitburn Criticism : Chart Fabrication, Misrepresentation of Sources, Cherry Picking ''. Songbook Jump up ^ Bogle, Donald ( 2011 ). Heat Wave : The Life and Career of Ethel Waters. HarperCollins. p. 466. ISBN 9780062041722. Jump up ^ Bogle, pp. 476 - 77. Jump up ^ The Hollywood Palace, episode 6.22, March 8, 1969, at Internet Movie Database Jump up ^ `` Grammy Hall of Fame ''. The Recording Academy. 2007. Archived from the original on 2010 - 12 - 24. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 06. Jump up ^ `` Christian Music Hall of Fame ''. Christian Music Hall of Fame and Museum. 2008 - 01 - 20. Archived from the original on 2008 - 02 - 05. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 06. Jump up ^ Tucker, Richard ( 2003 - 07 - 03 ). `` Ethel Waters : Commemorative Stamp ''. Ebony Society of Philatelic Events and Reflections. Archived from the original on 2008 - 09 - 08. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 06. Jump up ^ `` Awards Database : Ethel Waters ''. The Envelope Please. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008 - 02 - 06. Jump up ^ `` Ethel Waters HWOF Star Petition website ''. Jump up ^ Quinn, Rose. `` Chester great Ethel Waters memorialized in marker on Route 291 ''. www.delcotimes.com. Retrieved 25 September 2017. Further reading Barnet, Andrea ( 2004 ). All - Night Party : The Women of Bohemian Greenwich Village and Harlem, 1913 -- 1930. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books. ISBN 1 - 56512 - 381 - 6. Bogle, Donald ( 2011 ). Heat Wave : The Life and Career of Ethel Waters. New York : HarperCollins. Bourne, Stephen ( 2007 ). Ethel Waters : Stormy Weather. Lanham, Maryland : Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0 - 8108 - 5902 - 5. Johnson, Mayme Hatcher ; Miller, Karen E. Quinones. Harlem Godfather : The Rap on My Husband, Ellsworth `` Bumpy '' Johnson. New York. ISBN 978 - 0 - 9676028 - 3 - 7. Southern, Eileen ( 1997 ). The Music of Black Americans : A History. New York : W.W. Norton. ISBN 0 - 393 - 97141 - 4. Waters, Ethel ( 1972 ). To Me It 's Wonderful. New York : Harper & Row. OCLC 329566. Waters, Ethel ; Samuels, Charles T. ( 1992 ). His Eye on the Sparrow : An Autobiography. New York : Da Capo Press. ISBN 0 - 306 - 80477 - 8. Waters, Ethel ; Samuels, Charles T. ( 1951 ). His Eye on the Sparrow : An Autobiography. New York : Doubleday. External links Book : Ethel Waters Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ethel Waters. Biography portal Ethel Waters at the African American Registry Ethel Waters at AllMusic Ethel Waters on IMDb Ethel Waters at the Internet Broadway Database Ethel Waters discography at Discogs Ethel Waters discography Ethel Waters at Find a Grave Ethel Waters Singles `` There 'll Be Some Changes Made '' `` Tiger Rag '' `` Sweet Georgia Brown '' `` Dinah '' `` I 've Found a New Baby '' `` Sugar '' `` Am I Blue ? '' `` Three Little Words '' `` I Got Rhythm '' `` Shine On, Harvest Moon '' `` Stormy Weather '' `` Do n't Blame Me '' `` Heat Wave '' `` A Hundred Years from Today '' `` Miss Otis Regrets ( She 's Unable to Lunch Today ) '' Related articles Crystal Waters Book : Ethel Waters VIAF : 105261364 LCCN : n84149705 ISNI : 0000 0000 8035 0780 GND : 118629441 SUDOC : 076451674 BNF : cb13901027d ( data ) MusicBrainz : ab55e9c9 - d475 - 4fa5 - a903 - 06ff270b1e75 IATH : w6668sdp Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ethel_Waters&oldid=806218776 '' Categories : 1896 births 1977 deaths 20th - century American actresses 20th - century American singers African - American female singers African - American actresses American actresses American film actresses American gospel singers American jazz singers American stage actresses Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park ( Glendale ) Classic female blues singers Deaths from uterine cancer Deaths from renal failure Disease - related deaths in California American female jazz singers Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees Jubilee Records artists LGBT African Americans LGBT musicians from the United States LGBT people from Pennsylvania LGBT singers Mercury Records artists Musicians from Philadelphia Paramount Records artists People from Chester, Pennsylvania RCA Victor artists Singers from Pennsylvania Torch singers Vaudeville performers Vocalion Records artists Hidden categories : Articles with hCards All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017 Articles with IBDb links Find a Grave template with ID same as Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Asturianu Català Dansk Deutsch Español فارسی Français Italiano עברית Norsk Polski Português Русский Simple English Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog Tiếng Việt Edit links This page was last edited on 20 October 2017, at 14 : 44. 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Question: which blues singer is best remembered for her recording of stormy weather
Answer: Ethel Waters