Eleanora Harris, known to her fans as Billie Holiday, was born on April 7, 1915, in a Philadelphia Hospital. Her mother was only 13 years old at that time. Holiday upbringing was far from normal. Her early years were spent living with extended family members, while her mother searched for employment. A man named Wilbur Rich, who served only three months in a prison, raped Harris when she was eleven years old. In addition to this incident, Harris was briefly sent to The House of Good Shepherd for Colored Girls, a Baltimore Catholic school named .

Within months, Harris was allowed to return back home to her mother. After returning home, she began running errands a local brothel. This is where she began listening to the wind-up Victrola record player. She loved such blues musicians as Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. Between 1928 and 1929, Harris began her singing career in the bordellos of Baltimore. Soon after, she moved to Harlem with her mother where they, both, worked as prostitutes in a local whorehouse. This is where Harris met a saxophonist named Kenneth Hollon, who she soon started singing with in neighborhood clubs. It was during this time that Eleanor Harris changed her name to ‘Billie Holiday.’ Billie, she obtained from her favorite film star Billie Dove and Holiday from her father.

Holiday worked as a waiter in a Harlem nightclub, Mexico’s, where she sang for tips. Within months, Holiday began to create a reputation for herself. Her first professional experience occurred with Benny Goodman on a John Hammond organized recording session in November of 1933. It has been said that Holiday recorded over 200 songs but never received royalties for any of them between 1933 and 1944. Despite her lack of technical training, Holiday’s unique diction and dramatic intensity made her an outstanding jazz singer during her time. Her trademark was a white gardenia worn in her hair.

Some of the recordings, between 1935-1939, that helped form the foundation of Billie Holiday’s reputation were, ‘These Foolish Things, The Very Thought of You, The Man I Love, Blue Moon, My Man, and Billie’s Blues.’ Some of these recordings, and others, came from her band, which was organized by pianist Teddy Wilson. In 1937, Holiday teamed up with Count Basie and collaborated on a collection of pieces with his Kansas City Band. In addition, Holiday was portrayed in “Lady Sings the Blues” and starred in “New Orleans.”

During the early 1950s, Holiday fulfilled one of her life-long ambitions in toured over in Europe and once performed in front of 6,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Jack Parnell Band. Over the course of Holiday’s life, she experienced a number of racial issues. Some columnists believed that such issues hailed her back from her real potential. One of many abilities that Holiday possessed was the confidence to bounce back from setbacks and abusive relationships. Despite her wrongdoings, she is still influential to many individuals of today. In her later years of life, illness and health problems began to set course. She suffered a relapse on July 15, 1959. At the age of 44, Billie Holiday died on April 17, 1959.

To view a more in detail biography of Billie Holiday, click on her name.