Ethel Waters
Born October 31, 1896
Chester, Pennsylvania
Died September 1, 1977
Chatsworth, California
American singer, actress, and writer
"I had fame, but I was empty."
Among the dynamic entertainers that people flocked to Harlem by the carload to see was Ethel Waters, a talented singer and actress who had emerged from humble beginnings to become a star of nightclubs, musical revues, Broadway shows, and, eventually, films. Waters began her career by singing the blues—the new, uniquely African American musical form that was taking the United States by storm—but her smooth, sophisticated style took her beyond that category and into the broader realm of popular music. Waters's very emotional singing style—and, later, the realism she put into her dramatic roles—made her an especially memorable performer. She was also an African American trailblazer, becoming the first black woman to perform on radio (in 1922) and the first black singer to appear on television (in 1939).
"I Was Never a Child...."
Waters had a difficult, impoverished childhood. Her mother, Louise Anderson, was only thirteen when she gave birth to her daughter, who was the product of a rape by a local young white man named John Waters. (Ethel eventually took her father's surname.) Anderson found it too difficult to accept this child born of such violence, so Ethel was raised primarily by her grandmother, Sally Anderson, who lived at various times in Chester and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Camden, New Jersey.
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