Blues Singer, Songwriter. Born in Mississippi, and later moving to Chicago, Illinois, she became interested in music as a child. She soon learned how to sing in church and by the 1930s she was appearing regularly at some of the city's top nightclubs, taverns, and other venues. She also appeared frequently with personalities that included Big Bill Broonzy, and at the famed Apollo Theatre in New York City. With her superb timing and distinctively sinuous voice "Lil" soon began recording for such labels as RCA, and Aladdin. She also became famous for her hit songs that included, "Why Don't You Do Right?" (a minor key 12-bar blues classic which she wrote), "Romance In The Dark", "My Mellow Man", and "Country Bill Blues." Several of her songs have also been recorded by the likes of Jeri Southern, Mary Ann McCall, Peggy Lee, and Billie Holiday. During the 1940s, she continued her success touring with Tiny Bradshaw and Luis Russell. She also worked some more with the theatre circuit. Becoming somewhat of a mainstay of the black theatre circuit and to those that catered specifically to black audiences, she soon became tired of that life, but she could never really escape it. Her career began to wane in the late 1940s, especially when singer/actress Peggy Lee recorded one of her songs and made it into an enormous hit. In 1951, she signed with the Atlantic Record Label and she was soon brought new hope. She recorded some new singles but unfortunately, she found out she was in poor health and soon had to leave her contract behind. On April 14, 1954, "Lil" Green passed away at the young age of thirty five in Chicago. After her death Big Bill Broonzy remembered his friend as a "Deeply religious woman who neither smoked nor drank and as a warm-hearted woman." She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Gary, Indiana.
Blues Singer, Songwriter. Born in Mississippi, and later moving to Chicago, Illinois, she became interested in music as a child. She soon learned how to sing in church and by the 1930s she was appearing regularly at some of the city's top nightclubs, taverns, and other venues. She also appeared frequently with personalities that included Big Bill Broonzy, and at the famed Apollo Theatre in New York City. With her superb timing and distinctively sinuous voice "Lil" soon began recording for such labels as RCA, and Aladdin. She also became famous for her hit songs that included, "Why Don't You Do Right?" (a minor key 12-bar blues classic which she wrote), "Romance In The Dark", "My Mellow Man", and "Country Bill Blues." Several of her songs have also been recorded by the likes of Jeri Southern, Mary Ann McCall, Peggy Lee, and Billie Holiday. During the 1940s, she continued her success touring with Tiny Bradshaw and Luis Russell. She also worked some more with the theatre circuit. Becoming somewhat of a mainstay of the black theatre circuit and to those that catered specifically to black audiences, she soon became tired of that life, but she could never really escape it. Her career began to wane in the late 1940s, especially when singer/actress Peggy Lee recorded one of her songs and made it into an enormous hit. In 1951, she signed with the Atlantic Record Label and she was soon brought new hope. She recorded some new singles but unfortunately, she found out she was in poor health and soon had to leave her contract behind. On April 14, 1954, "Lil" Green passed away at the young age of thirty five in Chicago. After her death Big Bill Broonzy remembered his friend as a "Deeply religious woman who neither smoked nor drank and as a warm-hearted woman." She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Gary, Indiana.
Bio by: The Silent Forgotten
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