June 3, 1897 Memphis Minnie, blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, was born Lizzie Douglas in Algiers, Louisiana. Minnie learn June 4, 1946. She learned to play the guitar and banjo as a child. She ran away from home at the age of 13 and traveled to Memphis, Tennessee where she played guitar in nightclubs and on the streets. In 1929, she made her recording debut with “Bumble Bee” which became a hit. In the 1930s, Minnie moved to Chicago, Illinois and recorded such hits as “Hustlin’ Woman Blues” (1935), “In My Girlish Days” (1941), “Looking the World Over” (1941), and “Broken Heart” (1952). Minnie was the biggest female blues singer from the early depression years through World War II. Minnie retired from performing and recording in the mid-1950s and died August 6, 1973. In 1980, she was posthumously inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame and in 1992 a biography, “Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie’s Blues,” was published.
