Viola McCoy

A classic female blues singer who performed and recorded from the early '20s through to the late '30s, Viola McCoy was born in either Mississippi or Tennessee (accounts vary), moving to New York City in the early '20s, where she was active in revues and cabarets. Her recording career lasted from 1923 to 1929, and she cut sides for the Vocalion, Columbia, and Gennett imprints, although she also tracked for the Perfect, Pathe, Guardsman, Oriole, Domino, Variety, Cameo, and Lincoln labels under various pseudonyms, which included Amanda Brown (thought to be her birth name), Gladys White, Fannie Johnson, Susan Williams, Daisy Cliff, Clara White, and Bessie Williams. For a time McCoy owned and operated a nightclub in Saratoga, New York before leaving the entertainment business and settling in Albany, New York in 1938, where she passed away some 20 years later.