It was difficult to find a job during the Great Depression because of the limited number of workers. Each person and business were also restricted in the amount they could earn. But one woman proved that success is possible. Billie Holiday grew from a young child with no prospects to a woman who achieved so much. This paper will tell you about her many triumphs and glories.

Eleanor Fagan was Billie’s name when she was born in 1915. She was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sadie Holiday was only 19 years old at the time she gave Billie birth with Clarence Holiday. Clarence Holiday was a well-known jazz musician. Billie’s father was a very successful jazz musician and rarely visited Billie or Sadie. Billie was not born with a father. Billie was able to live in a stable environment for several years when her mother Phillip Gough married Billie in 1920. Billie was known by her grandfather before the marriage. Billie and Billy struggled at home. The marriage lasted only a few short years.

Billie’s behavior changed after her divorce. She began to skip classes and cause trouble. Billie, her mother and Billy were sent to the House of Good Shepherd for Billie’s truancy. Billie had just turned nine and was among the youngest of all the girls who lived there. In January she was sent to this house and in August that year, she was sent home. Billie suffered a sexual assault in 1926. She was sent home again, and the attacker was jailed. Billie decided at 13 years old to visit New York City to see her Mother. On the way, she decided stop in Pennsylvania Station so that she could visit Harlem. A social worker discovered her, and she was taken to the hotel in which she lived. The YWCA was located in this hotel. Billie began to sing in bars and clubs, and became a prostitution. Billie also began using drugs like marijuana. Billie had also started using drugs such as marijuana.

Billie was rejected from clubs when she auditioned as a performer in 1932. After that, she tried singing. Billie’s music producer John Hammond found Billie when she was 18 and singing in a Harlem Jazz Club. Hammond recorded Billie with Benny. Benny was both a clarinetist as well as a bandleader. Benny produced her first commercially released song, Your Mothers Son-in-Law. Riffin the Scotch topped the charts in 1934. She sang in Harlem’s nightclubs, and also in the theaters. Teddy Wilson was a jazz guitarist who began recording her soon after she had her first number one hit. Teddy Wilson was her partner in the recording of other singles like What a Light Moonlight Can Make and Miss Brown. Billie appeared in Duke Ellington’s film Symphony in Black in 1935. Billie recorded with Count Basie for a while, then a year after that she began recording with Artie. Billie was the first black artist to perform in a white orchestra.

Clarence Holiday died in 1937 from natural causes. In the late 1940s she began taking heavier drugs and her career began to plummet. She married Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. In 1947, Billie was imprisoned on drug charges. Billie Armstrong and Billie played in New Orleans together in 1946. After her arrest she began hanging out with men she felt were abusing her. She was also an alcoholic. On April 7, 1949, she appeared in Holiday, a Broadway musical, with Sam Stewart and Bobby Tucker. In 1954, she began her first tour of Europe. Billie and William Dufty published their first autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues in 1956.

Jimmy and Billie divorced in 1957. Billie wed a new man, Louis McKay, on March 28, 1957. Billie, in 1959, was hospitalized for heart and liver problems on May 31. Billie died on 17 July 1959 in New York due to liver disease. Billie passed away before Louis. Billie’s death was celebrated in 1994 and 2000 by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

It was not easy to succeed or to find work during the Great Depression. But, one person made it happen. Billies’ life was impacted by the Great Depression, from the moment her mother lost her job to her death. Billie Holiday has been through things that nobody should have ever had to endure. She was a woman of many accomplishments.