- "Baltimore's first lady of jazz", she sang with Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and the Miles Davis-John Coltrane Sextet, and appeared at the Newport and Monterey jazz festivals.
- She studied piano and became a church pianist. By her teens, she had discovered popular rhythm and blues, which her family frowned upon. She eventually joined a group of young jazz musicians, Riley's Octet, as a pianist. She was too young to appear in nightclubs, so they played in VFW and fellowship halls. She first sang in public as a 15-year-old, when an audience member promised her a $5 tip if she sang "In the Dark." She was a sensation, the crowd demanded encores, and from then on, she was a singer.
- She won acclaim for her a cappella rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at Nixon's 1973 presidential inauguration.
- She released her first album, "Lullabies for Losers," in 1955, which brought a praise-filled phone call from fellow Baltimore native Billie Holiday.
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