Billie Holiday was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 7, 1915. Her birth name being Eleanora Fagan.
Her parents had her very young and strugled heavily through out the years, her dad was a struggling musician. Just shy of 17 she was put out on the streets to live on her own. Instead of following
a normal career path she decided to sing the blues. At 17 she landed a residency at Covan's Club where she later on met producer John Hammond.
Soon after meeting her producer she started releasing singles. She married Jimmy Monnroe in 1941 while being involved with Joe Guy, her drug dealer. releasing singles and preforming until she was arested in 1947.Billie was a heavy drug user as well as a alcoholic. On May 16,1947 she was arested for posession of narcotics. While on trial she
expirenced not only racism but also sexism. She basically had no attourney and had to try and defend her self. She was sent to Alderson Federal Prison Camp for about a year but was let out early for good behavior.
She made a tremendous comeback to a sold out audience in Carnigie Hall.Billie preformed in smaller clubs throught the years after being released. It was not much longer until her bad habits caught up with her
she ws arested again on January 22, 1949. She was placed in rehab and diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. She passed away July 17, 1959, at the age of 44.
Work Cited:
"wikipedia.org"
