Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. [1] After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem where she was heard by producer John Hammond, …

Dec 29, 2025 · In 1928 she moved with her mother from Baltimore, Maryland (where she had spent her childhood), to New York City, and after three years of subsisting by various means, she found a job …

Born to an unwed teenage mother, Sadie Fagan, Holiday's childhood was one of poverty. Her father, Clarence Holiday (later a jazz guitarist) married Sadie three years later. He never lived with the …

Billie Holiday was born in Philadelphia to a teenage couple Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan and Clarence Holiday. As a young singer Holiday became part of the vibrant Harlem Renaissance scene, …

Born Eleanora Fagan on April 17, 1915 to an unwed teenage couple, Billie’s mother was kicked out of her house when she got pregnant. Her mother arranged for her older, married half-sister to take care …

Aug 26, 2024 · Due to her mother’s “transportation jobs”, Billie stayed with her older half-sister, Eva Miller, who was married. Billie was mostly raised by Eva’s mother-in-law, Martha Miller, and had a …

Jan 14, 2025 · Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, faced significant challenges in her early life. Much of her childhood was spent in Baltimore, Maryland, …

Born in 1915 in Philadelphia, and growing up in Baltimore, Eleanora Fagan (a.k.a. Billie Holiday) endured a brutally difficult childhood that saw her committed to an abusive Catholic reform school at …

Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She was placed in the care of her grandparents and an older cousin while her mother left to work in New York City. Her father, a banjo …

Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Gough) grew up in jazz-soaked Baltimore of the 1920s. In her early teens, the beginning part of her “apprenticeship” was spent singing along with the records of …