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Billie was a social Jitterbug dancer at the Savoy Ballroom
in Harlem, NY. She would later become a Blues singer and
actress. Billie's life was not a glamorous one growing up.
Her grandfather was the son of a slave on a plantation and
the daughter of a child mother of thirteen.
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Billie was raised in a house of Prostitution where poor
morals, drinking and drugs were in abundance. While dancing
in nightclubs she learned she could sing. Benny Goodman
gave Billie her first break into the Business. Holiday joined
Count Basiein 1937 and Artie
Shawin 1938, becoming one of the first black singers
to be featured with a white orchestra.
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Although
very successful, Billies life was a troubled one. She was
arrested in 1947 and was jailed on drug charges and again
in 1959 for a narcotic addiction, she died the same year
at only 44 years of age. She was one of the true legends
of the Blues.
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