Ella Fitzgerald was born on 25th April 1917 in Newport News, Virginia. Her parents, William Fitzgerald and Temperance (Tempie) Henry, did not stay together long. In the 1920s Tempie took her daughter to Yonkers, New York, moving in with Tempie’s longtime boyfriend Joseph (Joe) Da Silva. Frances, Fitzgerald’s half-sister, was born in 1923 and Ella began referring to Joe as her stepfather. 

 

Life was hard for the family, but Fitzgerald initially did well at school. Her first real exposure to music came at the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church and through listening to jazz records. 

 

Unfortunately, Tempie died in 1932 following a car accident and so Fitzgerald moved to Harlem to stay with her mother’s sister, Virginia. Frances joined them when Joe died shortly afterwards. This experience had a big impact on Fitzgerald; her grades declined as she skipped school and she got into trouble with the police. She was sent to reform school but later escaped, ending up alone on the streets of Harlem. 

 

Fitzgerald began singing on the streets to earn money, before debuting at the Amateur Night competition at the Apollo Theatre in November 1934. Fitzgerald won first place, but due to her untidy appearance, she was not given the full prize of a performance slot at the theatre for a week. However, this boost gave her the confidence to try other competitions. 

As the jazz scene moved from swing and big bands to the bebop era, Fitzgerald refined her singing style, further developing her scat singing. During this period she worked with Dizzie Gillespie and commented “I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing." 

 

In 1954, Fitzgerald made her first tour of Australia, however the tour started badly when Fitzgerald, her pianist John Lewis, her assistant (and cousin) Georgiana Henry, and manager Norman Granz were ordered off the plane despite their first-class tickets. Despite statements that this was not racially motivated, the airline was sued by the group and lost on appeal. Meanwhile, the tour went on to set new box office records. 

In the 1950s, Granz set up Verve Records to record Fitzgerald’s voice. At this point she was feeling stuck; she reflected: “Norman ... felt that I should do other things, so he produced Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book with me. It was a turning point in my life.” 

 

Fitzgerald recorded a series of “Song Book” albums including “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book”, which was the only Song Book on which the composer she interpreted performed. Both Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn appeared on 19 tracks and wrote two new pieces of music for the album. Other Song Book albums included Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart. Ira Gershwin is reported as saying “I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them.” 

Alongside time in the recording studio, Fitzgerald also appeared on many popular TV shows including “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Tonight Show”, as well as programmes hosted by fellow singers. 

 

After the sale of Verve Records to MGM in 1967, MGM did not renew Fitzgerald’s contract and so she recorded for a variety of other labels including an album of hymns, Christmas songs and a country and western influenced album. 

 

After the unexpected success of her 1972 album “Jazz at Santa Monica Civic, '72”, Granz set up Pablo Records and Fitzgerald went on to record 20 albums for the label. 

 

Fitzgerald spent much of her professional life touring, sometimes performing two shows in different cities on the same day. She toured America and Europe. She continued to perform as she grew older’ despite declining health. Her final performance was at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1991. Fitzgerald died at her home on 15th June 1996. 

Alongside her musical career, Fitzgerald was a child welfare advocate and regularly made donations to help disadvantaged youth. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan in 1987. She received many other awards, including honorary doctorates from Yale, Dartmouth, and several other universities. 

 

Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967. She was also awarded the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, the first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award (named "Ella" in her honour), the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement. Her musical accomplishments were acknowledged with honorary doctorates of music from Yale University, Princeton University and Harvard University. Fitzgerald was also appointed Commander of Arts and Letters in France. 

 

After Fitzgerald’s death, many of her papers and belongings were donated to the Library of Congress and the National Museum of American History with the aid of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, with additional objects homed by the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. Details can be seen on the Smithsonian website. 

Ella Fitzgerald - https://www.ellafitzgerald.com 

 

Ella Fitzgerald by Ashley Angelucci, National Women’s History Museum - https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ella-fitzgerald 

 

Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song, The Smithsonian - https://www.si.edu/spotlight/ella-fitzgerald