Ella Fitzgerald
By: Anna Eichinger

Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born on April 25th 1997, in Newport News Virginia. Ella Fitzgerald is what I would call a cinderella success story. She was born into a normal family with a mother and father, but just months after she was born, her parents seperated. Ella moved to Yonkers, New York with her mother and her long time boyfriend, eventually she married and had another child. They lived a happy life, but in the year 1932, Ella's mother died from injuries she received in a car accident. Just a few weeks later, her step-father suffered a sever heart attack and also died. This forced Ella to move in with her aunt. Ella had a very hard time adjusting to her new life. She began skipping school and getting into quite a bit of trouble, eventually dropping out of high school, getting into some trouble with the law. Ella was then forced into to a reform school,but in fall of 1934, Ella ran away from the reform school in hopes of becoming a singer or dancer. She lived on the streets for years, until she entered an amateur singing contest in Harlem at the Apollo Theater. That night, she won $25 for first place and the attention of Chick Webb.

Mr. Webb was the key to kickstarting Ella's career, her first recording was "Love and Kisses" which was released in 1938. Just three years later, Ella made her first hit, "A-Tisket-A-Tasket". And a few months later, she came out with "I Found My Yellow Basket", This climbed to number three on the charts. Webb died in 1939, so Ella took over and became the leader of his band. It was renamed Ella Fitzgerad and her Famous Orchestra. For the next 60 years Ella was the best of the best when it came to Jazz. She performed with famous musicians like Frank Sinatra, and Duke Ellington. She became "The First lady of Jazz" because she was so popular. She pretty much created "scatt" which is mimicking insturments with your voice, this became her signature. It wasnt an easy road though, Ella also faced descrimination every day on the streets. Once when she was backstage, police burst into Ella's dressing room and found some stage hands shooting dice. Ther arrested her and half of the other acts for gambling, and then asked for her autograph when she was released.

Ella Fitzgerald had many achievements in her life time. She recorded over 200 albums and well over 2,000 songs in her lifetime, and exceded more than $40 million in records sales. She recieved 13 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, inducted into the Down Beat magazine Hall of Fame, recieved Kennedy Center Honors for continuing contributions to the arts, she has several awards from various colleges, and even has her own Commemorative Stamp, given to her by the United States Postal Service in 2007. She was married a few times, from 1947-1952 she was married to Ray Brown. They adopted the son of Ella's half-sister, and renamed him Ray Brown, Jr. Fitzgerald.

In the last 20 years of her life, Ella Fitzgerald began to see a decline in her voice, due to age and also complications that resulted from diabetes. Diabetes Left Ella blind, and in 1994 she had both of her legs amputated. Her last recording was made in 1989 and her last public performance was in 1991, in New York, at Carnegie Hall. On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald died in her home in Beverly Hills. She was seventy nine years old. She was survived by her son, Ray Brown, and her grand-daughter Alice.