Ernestine Anderson

Ernestine Anderson | Undated | KNKX Public Radio

Ernestine Irene Anderson was a blues and jazz singer born in Houston, Texas on November 11, 1928; she started singing to her parents collection of 78 rpm records when she was three years old. Her father sang in a Gospel quartet and both grandfathers also sang in choirs. Her family moved to Seattle when she was 16. She graduated from Garfield High School in 1946.

Her career spanned more than five decades, and was nominated for Grammy awards four times. She had grown up listening to the blues music of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and the jazz music of Count Basie, and her personal style encompassed all those elements. She toured with the Johnny Otis and Lionel Hampton shows. Her recordings for the American Sue label were made in 1963 when she had settled in New York.

Anderson was one of 75 women chosen for the book, “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America” (1999), by photographer Brian Lanker. In the book, Ernestine joined such company as Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Oprah Winfrey, Lena Horne and Sarah Vaughan.

Ernestine Anderson died of natural causes in a nursing home in Shoreline, near Seattle, Washington State on 10th March 2016, age 87.

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Owen Gray

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