One of the most influential of popular singers, her early career found her working in vaudeville. As a consequence, It is reputed that she was the first singer to perform W. C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” in public, and she later popularized blues and jazz-influenced songs such as “Stormy Weather” and “Travelin’ All Alone,” also scoring a major success with “Dinah.” She first recorded in 1921,
A buoyant, high-spirited singer with a light, engaging voice that frequently sounded “whiter” than most of her contemporaries, her career was an object lesson in determination and inner drive. Her appalling childhood problems and troubled early life, were overcome through grit and the application of her great talent. Ethel Waters