Memories of Ethel Waters

When I was a child there were two black ladies in my life:

Ethel Waters and Mahalia Jackson

This is largely due to the fact that as my mother's son I was pretty much steeped in the various religion she viewed as significant to her life, primarily baptist and methodist denominational and I would frequent Billy Graham crusades on the television and could encounter these ladies there singing their praises to the one true God as only they were able.
 

Ethel Waters October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977

Ethel Waters was an American singer and actress.

She began her career in the 1920s singing blues performed then migrated to jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts.

She recorded hits of the likes of "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", with her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Oscar.

She was the first African-American to both star on her own television show be nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

She suffered several personal tragedies in her life time incluing robbery and devastating health issues.

Ethel Waters died on September 1, 1977, aged 80, from cancer of the uterus, kidney failure, and other ailments, in Chatsworth, California. She is interred at Glendale, California in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.