Billie Holiday - Bronx, NY - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

“Singing songs like the ‘The Man I Love’ or ‘Porgy’ is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck.”
- Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday (birth name Eleanora Fagan) was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Baltimore. Her childhood can only be described as rough: single mother who was often gone, raised mainly by relatives, frequent truancy brought her to juvenile court at the age of 9, dropped out of school at 11, forced to work menial jobs etc., etc. After a move to Harlem with her mother, Eleanora began singing in nightclubs while still a teenager. She took the stage name Billie Halliday, which she later changed to Holiday.

A natural talent (she never received any formal training) Billie Holiday began to get noticed by some big-name performers such as Benny Goodman and Chick Webb. She began her recording career in 1933 at the age of 18 and went on to perform with such big band leaders as Count Basie and Artie Shaw. A major recording artist and performer throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, Holiday’s career was constantly beset by drug and alcohol abuse, bad relationships and her own temperamental nature. A low point was being arrested for narcotics possession in 1947.

After staging several comebacks including sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall, Holiday’s abusive lifestyle finally caught up with her when she died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 44 in 1959. She was laid to rest in St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx next to her mother Sadie. Her nickname ‘Lady Day,’ which appears on her tombstone, was given to her by saxophonist Lester Young, who frequently accompanied her during performances. Her 1956 autobiography ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ was made into a movie in 1972.
(Source: wikipedia.org.)

Description: See Long Description above. Date of birth: 04/07/1915 Date of death: 07/17/1959 Area of notoriety: Entertainment Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   07/21/2023 Team Double A visited it