Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald came out of a tumultuous adolescence and found her footing with the Chick Webb Orchestra, centered at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Her 1938 rendition of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" launched both her and Webb into national recognition. When Webb died in 1939, she took over the band, then left it three years later to go solo. Under manager Norman Granz - who founded Verve Records specifically to record her - she cut the songbook interpretations that became her legacy. She sang with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots, producing "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". In 1993, after nearly sixty years, she gave her last performance. She died three years later at seventy-nine, holding fourteen Grammys and both the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.