Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Baltimore, Maryland. (She borrowed the name "Billie" from one of her favorite movie actresses, Billie Dove.) Born to an unwed teenage mother, Sadie Fagan, Holiday's childhood was one of poverty. Her father, Clarence Holiday married Sadie three years later. He never lived with the family, choosing his musical career over them. As a child Billie started working very young, running errands and cleaning a house of prostitution's. It was here that she first heard Louis Armstrong (1900–1971) and Bessie Smith (1894–1937) records through the open windows. March 28, 2008 at 7:30 PM — Nashville, TN — The Tennessee State University Department of Communications Theatre Program will open its 2008-2009 season with Lanie Robertson’s, “Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill.” Running March 28- April 6, 2008 in the TSU Performing Arts Center’s Cox/Lewis Theater, the production includes an all Department of Communications cast, with direction by TSU faculty affiliate Dr. Lawrence James.