Summary of Billie Holiday & William Dufty's Lady Sings the Blues

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 When my mother, Sadie, was 13, she got married to my father, Clarence, who was 15. They lived in a house on Durham Street in Baltimore. My mother had worked as a maid up North in New York and Philadelphia. She had seen all the rich people with their gas and electric lights, and she wanted them too.

#2 I had a difficult time with my cousins. I was always getting bullied and beaten up by them, and I was always getting in trouble with my grandma. My favorite relative was my great-grandmother, my grandfather’s mother, who loved me and was always there for me.

#3 When I was sixteen, I began working as a scrubber. I would bring home as much as ninety cents a day. I even made $2. 10—that’s fourteen kitchen or bathroom floors and as many sets of steps.

#4 I used to love to sing, and I would spend hours listening to music. I would spend my money on records, which I would then listen to in Alice Dean’s parlor.