Bessie Smith

On April 15, 1894, Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her parents and brother had died by the time Smith was nine, leaving her sister Viola as the caretaker. Therefore, Smith had a "wretched childhood" and never received an…

Ethel Waters was born on October 31, 1896 in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was raised in poverty by her grandmother as well as two aunts and an uncle. When asked about her childhood, Waters once said "I never was a child. I never was…