The first popular stage entertainer to incorporate authentic blues in her song repertoire, Ma Rainey (1886-1939) performed during the first three decades of the twentieth century.Known as the "Mother of the Blues," she enjoyed mass popularity during...

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey is known as the "Mother of the Blues." Born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia, on April 26, 1886, Rainey was the first woman known to sing the blues, combining country blues simplicity with more...

Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939), was one of the earliest known professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record.[1] She was billed as The Mother...

Culbertson, D.C. Baltimore Afro-American 11-15-2002 August Wilson has become famous for his cycle of plays about the African-American experience, each set in a different decade, "The Piano Lesson," "Fences" and "Jitney." The cycle began with "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," written in 1984,...

00-00-0000 'Ma Rainey' loses luster By ROBERT FELDBERG, Staff Writer Date: 02-07-2003, Friday Section: GO! Edtion: All Editions.=.Two Star B. Two Star P. One Star B WHAT: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," a play revival. Written by August Wilson. With Charles S. Dutton...

Friedrich AdolphMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) _ Friedrich Adolph, the last surviving sailor in Uruguay from the famed German battleship Admiral Graf Spee, died Friday, his family said. He was 89.Adolph had been "very sick," according to his grandson, Tobias Friedrich Adolph.The Graf Spee was considered one...

August Wilson’s extraordinary first play, Jitney (1982), born in the chains of slavery and the necessity of memory, was a tragedy of small and profound lives lived out in good humor and mortal struggle and amazing grace, as if the fragility of life were a...