On This Day In History: Singer Sarah Vaughan dies

Sarah Vaughan Cherokee
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Internationally renowned jazz singer and pianist Sarah Vaughan dies at the age of 66.

Vaughan, the daughter of a carpenter and a laundress, was born in Newark in 1924 and grew up singing gospel hymns and playing piano in church. Encouraged by friends, she entered the famous amateur night competition at New York's Apollo Theater in October 1942, at age 18, and won first place.

Musician and bandleader Billy Eckstine hired her six months later as a pianist and singer for the Earl "Fatha" Hines big band, where she performed with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The three all followed Eckstine when, in 1943, he formed his own band. In 1945, Vaughan launched her solo career and scored her first hit, "Tenderly," in 1947. Later hits included "It's Magic" (1948) and "Broken Hearted Melody" (1950). She scored 20 hit singles between 1954 and 1966.

In the 1970s and 1980s, her reputation only grew. Her live performances at nightclubs and jazz festivals won her an international following. Many said her versatile voice, with a range spanning more than two octaves, could easily have lent itself to opera.

Vaughan, whose mischievous sense of humor won her the nickname Sassy, won a Grammy for Best Vocal Jazz Performance in 1982, for "Gershwin Live!" A heavy smoker, Vaughan died of lung cancer.