Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald married Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer, in 1941, but the marriage was annulled in 1942. She married bass player Ray Brown in 1947. They adopted her half-sister’s son, whom they named Ray Brown Jr. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953.

In July 1957, it was reported by Reuters that Ella had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a Norwegian. Larsen got into legal trouble when he was arrested for stealing money from a young woman.

Fitzgerald was a civil rights activist. During the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour, it was ensured that there were no separate seating arrangements for ‘colored’ or ‘white’ people. However, throughout her career she faced racial discrimination. In 1954, she was not allowed to board the Pan American flight due to racial discrimination.

Ella Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia, to William Fitzgerald and Temperance ‘Tempie’ Fitzgerald. Her parents were not legally married. When she was two-and-a-half-years old, her parents separated.

In the early 1920s, Fitzgerald's mother and her boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva, a Portuguese immigrant, moved to Yonkers, New York. After her half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923, they moved to School Street, a poor Italian area, in 1925.

Ella began her education at the age of six. She attended Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in 1929. Since she was fond of singing and dancing, her church provided her with the formal music lessons and some piano lessons.

When she was 15, her mother died from serious injuries she suffered in a car accident. In 1933, she moved in with her aunt in Harlem, maybe because her stepfather abused her, as speculated by her biographer Stuart Nicholson. Ella never spoke in public about her tormented childhood.

Following these traumatic experiences, she started skipping school. During this period, she became involved in minor illegal activities, so the authorities caught her and placed her in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale.

On November 21, 1934, Ella Fitzgerald took part in a contest at Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater. She sang ‘Judy’ and ‘The Object of My Affection’, and won the first prize of $25.

In January 1935, she got the opportunity to perform with the Tiny Bradshaw band for a week at the Harlem Opera House. During this time, she met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb, and started singing in the band. She recorded the songs ‘Love and Kisses’ and ‘(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)’ with the band, which became immediate hits.

In 1938, she co-wrote the nursery rhyme, ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’, which was a major hit, followed by another hit, ‘I Found My Yellow Basket’.

After Chick Webb died in 1939, Ella became the leader of the band, which she renamed as Ella and her Famous Orchestra. Between 1935 and 1942, she recorded about 150 songs with the orchestra. She also recorded with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

In 1942, she left the band to start a solo career and signed with the Decca label. She also worked regularly for the jazz artist Norman Granz and appeared in his philharmonic concerts. Later, Granz became her manager. She made her film debut as Ruby in the comedy ‘Ride 'Em Cowboy’ the same year.

Ella Fitzgerald is considered to be one of the greatest scat singers in jazz history. Her scat recording of ‘Flying Home’ (1945) was one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade. Her bebop recording of ‘Oh, Lady Be Good!’ (1947) was equally popular.

Her studio album ‘Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book’ earned her a Grammy. The album was released in two volumes. The entire “Songbook” series was highly acclaimed critically and was also commercially successful. Critics called the Songbook series her most valuable gift to American culture. ‘The New York Times’ praised the albums as “a vehicle for serious musical exploration."