Ruth Brown - Early life, Career, Later life, Death

Blues singer and actress, born in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA. She grew up singing gospel music in the local African Methodist Episcopal Church where her father was choirmaster. In 1945 she ran away from home to sing with trumpeter Jimmy Brown, whom she married, and adopted his name on stage, although it later transpired that the marriage was bigamous. Her career took off when she was spotted singing in a nightclub and approached to sign for the new Atlantic Records label. After a delay due to her lengthy hospitalization following a car accident, she recorded the blues ballad ‘So Long’ (1949), which became a hit. Her next record, ‘Teardrops From My Eyes’, reached the top spot on the rhythm-and-blues chart, and she went on to become the best-selling black female performer of the early 1950s. During the 1960s her popularity waned and she fell on hard times, but she made a successful comeback and forged a parallel career as a film and television actress, and won a Tony award for her role in the Broadway revue Black and Blue. Her legal action in 1980 against Atlantic Records for recovery of unpaid royalties was successfully resolved in 1989, and as a result the company founded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation to support ageing and impoverished musicians.

Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown, from compilation album of early recordings
Background information
Born	January 12, 1928 Portsmouth, Virginia
Died	November 17, 2006 Las Vegas
Genre(s)	Rhythm and Blues
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1949 - 1993

Ruth Brown (born Ruth Weston, January 12, 1928 in Portsmouth, Virginia - November 17, 2006) was a singer who brought a popular music style to rhythm and blues in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s.

Early life

Ruth Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with a trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs.

Career

Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager.

Teardrops from My Eyes, written by Rudy Toombs, was the first upbeat major hit for Ruth Brown, establishing her as an important figure in R&B.

Later life

During the 1960s, Brown faded from public view to become a housewife and mother, and only returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of comedic acting gigs, including a role in sitcom Hello, Larry and the John Waters film Hairspray, as well as earning a Tony Award for her Broadway performance of Black and Blue and a Grammy award for her album Blues on Broadway, featuring hits from the show.

Brown's fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Brown recorded and sang along with fellow rhythm and blues performer Charles Brown, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and toured with Raitt on Raitt's tour in the late 1990s, "Road Tested".

Death

Ruth Brown passed away in Las Vegas on November 17, 2006, at the age of 78 from complications following a heart attack and stroke she suffered after surgery in October 2006.