- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSarah Lois Vaughan
- Nicknames
- Sassy
- The Divine One
- The Velvet Fox
- Height5′ 3½″ (1.61 m)
- Sarah Vaughan was born March 27, 1924 in Newark, NJ, and died April 3, 1990, in Los Angeles of lung cancer. Her parents were Asbury, a carpenter, and Ada, a laundress. She began studying music when she was seven, taking eight years of piano lessons and two years of organ. As a child she sang in the choir at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Newark and played piano and organ in high school productions at Arts High School. She entered an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater in New York's Harlem area, singing "Body and Soul", and won the $10 prize and a week's engagement at the Apollo. From 1944 to 1945, she sang with Billy Eckstine and in 1947 she married her manager, trumpeter George Treadwell. Her later husbands included pro football player Clyde Atkins and trumpeter Waymon Reed. She received many awards, including an Emmy in 1981 for a tribute to George Gershwin and a Grammy in 1983.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Mike McKinley <alovelyway@aol.com> (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpousesWaymon Reed(1978 - 1981) (divorced)Marshall Fisher(1971 - 1977) (divorced)Clyde B. Atkins(September 4, 1958 - 1963) (divorced, 1 child)George Treadwell(September 16, 1946 - 1957) (divorced)
- Children
- She was inducted into the 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame for her contributions to Arts and Entertainment.
- She was a lifelong Democrat and during the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration was a frequent guest singer at The White House.
- Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1982.
- She and Clyde B. Atkins adopted a daughter in 1961, whom they named Deborah Lois (now Paris Vaughan).
- She has a street named after her in Newark, New Jersey.
- There are notes between notes, you know.
- I've always been a Democrat, it runs in my family.
- Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice.
- They always ask me the same questions. Where was I born? When did I start singing? Who have I worked with? I don't understand why they can't just talk to me without all that question bit.
- When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice.
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