Ethel Waters (October , â€" September , ) was an American singer and
actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the
Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the s
singing blues. Waters notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy
Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I
Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to
be nominated for an Academy Award. She was the first African American
to star on her own television show and the first African-American
woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.Waters was born in
Chester, Pennsylvania on October , (some sources state her birth year
as ) as a result of the rape of her teenaged African-American mother,
Louise Anderson (â€") by John Waters, (â€"), a pianist and family
acquaintance from a middle-class African-American background. Waters's
family was very fair skinned, her mother in particular. Many sources,
including Ethel herself, have reported for years that her mother was
or years old at the time of the rape, when Ethel was born. Stephen
Bourne opens his biography, Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather, with the
statement that genealogical research has shown that she may have been
in her late teens.Waters played no role in raising Ethel. Soon after
she was born, her mother married Norman Howard, a railroad worker.
Ethel used the surname Howard as a child and then reverted to her
father's name. She was raised in poverty by Sally Anderson, her
grandmother, who worked as a housemaid, and with two of her aunts and
an uncle. Waters never lived in the same place for more than months.
Of her difficult childhood, she said "I never was a child. I never was
cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family."
actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the
Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the s
singing blues. Waters notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy
Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I
Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of
"His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to
be nominated for an Academy Award. She was the first African American
to star on her own television show and the first African-American
woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.Waters was born in
Chester, Pennsylvania on October , (some sources state her birth year
as ) as a result of the rape of her teenaged African-American mother,
Louise Anderson (â€") by John Waters, (â€"), a pianist and family
acquaintance from a middle-class African-American background. Waters's
family was very fair skinned, her mother in particular. Many sources,
including Ethel herself, have reported for years that her mother was
or years old at the time of the rape, when Ethel was born. Stephen
Bourne opens his biography, Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather, with the
statement that genealogical research has shown that she may have been
in her late teens.Waters played no role in raising Ethel. Soon after
she was born, her mother married Norman Howard, a railroad worker.
Ethel used the surname Howard as a child and then reverted to her
father's name. She was raised in poverty by Sally Anderson, her
grandmother, who worked as a housemaid, and with two of her aunts and
an uncle. Waters never lived in the same place for more than months.
Of her difficult childhood, she said "I never was a child. I never was
cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family."
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