Ethel+Waters

= __**E t h e l W a t e r s !**﻿ __ =

Ethel Waters J

(Video) Ethel Waters singing her original song; 'His Eyes on the Sparrow'.

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Ethel Waters was born October 31st, (Halloween night) 1896 in Chester, PA. Her mother was raped at the age of twelve. That's how Ethel was born. Ethel started working at the age of eight. She was a maid & a housecleaner at hotels. She got paid at only $3.50 a week. At around the age of ten years old, Ethel worked at a club/stripping basement. She was a lounge singer while her mother was an old-timey stripper. That job paid $10.00 a week. At the age of eleven, Louise Anderson (Ethel's mother) was not prepared to take care of a child. So she sent Ethel away to live with her grandmother in Philadelphia. Everything was great in Philadelphia for Ethel. She had a stable paying job at another hotel for $4.75 a week. But then, everything for Ethel turned upside down. When she turned thirteen, she married a man named Merritt "Buddy" Pernsley in 1910. Buddy was twenty-three years of age when Ethel was thirteen. The marriage lasted less than a year because of Buddy being abusive. She left him & continued her job at the hotel. ======

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When Ethel turned twenty-one years old in the year 1917, that's when her career began. Ethel was a singer & an actress. She has starred in many movies, has created many songs, & has even written an autobiography. She has won an Oscar, a Grammy, & has even been inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame & also the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. She was nominated for an Academy Award & ended up winning it. The movie that allowed Ethel to win an Oscar was //Pinky //. ======

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Her autobiography she wrote was called //His Eyes on the Sparrow// which later was turned into a gospel song. Waters had fifty #1 hit singles throughout her career. She mostly sang pop, jazz, rock, & swing. During her career, she was involved the Harlem Renaissance. She was the first African-American woman to be on a radio show, & the first African-American woman to sign with Columbia Records®. Ethel Waters was very influential in her day. She proved that anything can happen to anyone without being judged by the color of your skin...So thank you Ms. Ethel Waters. We really appreciate all that you've done for all the actors & singers in our day! ======

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=__﻿Ethel Waters__= =__Early Childhood and Young Adulthood__= Ethel Waters or “Sweet Mama String bean” was born on Saturday, October 31, 1896 in Chester, Pennsylvania. Ethel was conceived nine months after her mother, Louise Tar Anderson, was raped at the age of twelve by her father, John Weley Waters. Due to the way Louise got impregnated, it was hard for her to accept her new born child, so she sent Ethel to live with her grandmother, Sally Anderson, or one of her two aunts. According to Waters, she had one half-sister between her mother and her step-father, Norman Howard, and as many as 3 half-brothers from her father. Ethel never got to know her father in depth because he passed away caused by poisoning when she was three years old. In her autobiography, “His Eye is on The Sparrow” Waters mentions that she in fact did not have much of a childhood at all; due to the dangerous and often times threatening environments she grew up in. When she was eight years old, Ethel got a job as a substitute maid, dishwasher, and waitress in local hotels. At the age of nine, Ethel’s grandmother enrolled her into Catholic school where the nuns inspired admiration, respect, and the unconditional love of God. At the age of thirteen, Water’s, with her mother’s blessings married Merritt “Buddy” Pernsley. Pernsley was 10 years Ethel’s senior. The marriage lasted less than a year because of Pernsley’s abusive nature. Together, they had no children. Years later, Waters married and soon divorced Edward Mallory. Thirteen years later, Waters married Clyde Edwards Matthews. Since her marriages produced no children, Ethel Waters adopted her goddaughter, Algretta Holmes. Her grandmother was the largest influence in her life and inspired her to do many of the things she has become known for today.

__Ethel's Career__
On her 21st birthday (October 31, 1917), Ethel Water’s career began when she performed a song at Jack’s Rathskeller, a local Philadelphia club. Upon the influence of Braxton and Nugent, two successful agents, Ethel began singing at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore alongside Maggie and Jo Hill to complete the Hill Sisters trio. During her performances, Ethel and the Hill Sisters faced many complications such as Jim Crow laws and unfair treatment because of the color of their skin. On April 21, 1922, Ethel Waters became the first African American woman to air on the radio. She was 26 years old at the time. In the summer of 1924, Ethel filled in the absence of Florence Mills and sang a duet with Josephine Baker in Sam Salvin’s Plantation Club. //On With the// Show was Ethel’s first movie. It was produced in 1929. In 1931, Ethel went on an eight-month tour for Lew Leslie’s production of //Blackbirds//. From the years 1950 to 1951, Ethel acted on the show Beulah that aired on ABC Television. Ethel “Sweet Mama Stringbean” Waters had such a wonderful voice, it made anyone want to stop and listen. She was a musical icon and left a mark in the Harlem Renaissance and will be remember till this day as the strong, willful, and headstrong person she was. Ethel has given me the inspiration to know that no matter what, things will come through. Ethel Waters died from cancer on Saturday, September 1, 1977 in Chatsworth, California. media type="youtube" key="NoCO_1GcoV0" height="390" width="480"   To hear more of Ethel's singing, click here.   YouTube video didn't work? click here.   Works Cited: "Ethel Waters." //Contemporary Black Biography//. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 1994. //Gale Biography In Context//. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.

"Ethel Waters." //Dictionary of American Biography//. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1995. //Gale Biography In Context//. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.