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MA RAINEY

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Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886<ref name=talk>Note: this is the usually stated date, although there is some evidence she was in fact born in 1882 - see talk page.</ref> â€“ December 22, 1939), was one of the earliest known United States|American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record.<ref name=southern>{{cite book | last=Southern | first=Eileen | authorlink=Eileen Southern | year=1997 | title=The Music of Black Americans: A History |edition=3rd edition | publisher=W. W. Norton & Company | isbn=0-393-97141-4</ref> She was billed as List of people known as the father or mother of something|The Mother of the Blues. She did much to develop and popularize the form and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith, and their careers.

Career
Rainey was born in Columbus, Georgia.<ref>[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&GRid=2477&PIgrid=2477&PIcrid=36417&PIpi=82955& Find a Grave: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey]</ref> She first appeared on stage in Columbus in "A Bunch of Blackberries" at fourteen. She then joined a traveling vaudeville troupe, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. After hearing a blues song at a theater in St. Louis, Missouri, sung by a local girl in 1902, she started performi... read all