Ella Fitzgerald was born April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virgina. She experienced a troubled childhood growing up starting with her parents separating shortly after her birth. She then moved to Yonker, New York with her mother, they lived with her mother boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. her family grew with the arrival of her sister Frances. her first career aspiration was going to be a dancer. After her mother’s death in 1932 she moved to live with her aunt, it caused her to get in trouble at school and she was sent to a reform school but didn’t stay long. In 1934 she started living on the streets and tried making it on her own.
She still wanted to make dreams come true of being an entertainer she entered herself at amateur night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. At the contest she sang the Hoagy Carmicheal tune “Judy” and she also sang “The Objection Of My Affection”. She took home the 25-dollar first place prize. After preforming at the Apollo, her career skyrocketed by meeting bandleader and drummer Chick Webb and joined as a singer. In 1935 she recorded a song with Chuck Webb titled “Love and Kisses. She regularly played at one of the hottest clubs, the Savory. In 1938 she put out her first No.1 single “A- Tisket, A- Tasket”. Later that year she recorded her second hit, “I Found My Yellow Basket”. She also recorded and performed with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. She had her own band called Ella Fitzgerald and her Savoy Eight. In 1939 after Webbs Death Ella became the leader of the band and renamed it Ella Fitzgerald and her Famous Orchestra.
Around this time, she got married to Ben Kornegay, they had their wedding in 1941 but soon got annulled. She recorded some hits with Ink Spots and Louis Jordan in the 1940s. In 1942 she made her acting debut in the film “Ride’em Cowboy”. Her career took of when she started working with Norman Graz in 1946. Aroun the mid 1940s Ella went on tour with Dizzy Gillespie and his band. She started incorporating scatting into her singing style. She fell in love with Gillespie bass player Ray Brown they married in 1947 and adopted her sister’s child who they named Raymond “Ray” Brown Jr. The marriage ended in 1952. She earned the nickname “First Lady Of Song” for her popularity and here unparalleled vocals. In 1958 she attended her first Grammys, which she became the first black women to win a Grammy. She was still going well into the 1970s playing with Sintra and Basie. In the 1980s she started to have serious health problems; she got diagnosed with diabetes and left her blind and had both legs amputed.
She died June 15, 1996, at Her Beverly Hills home. she has become a very influential artist in the jazz music genre.
