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Billie Holiday (April 7, - July 17, ), also called Lady Day is generally considered one of the greatest jazzsingers of all time.

Born Eleanora Fagan, she had a difficult childhood which affected her life and career.

Early life

Much of Billie Holiday's childhood is clouded by conjecture and legend, some of it propagated by herself in her autobiography published in She was born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Fells Point section of Baltimore.

According to her autobiography, her house was the first on their street to have electricity.

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Her mother, Sadie Fagan, was just 13 at the time of her birth; her father Clarence Holiday, a jazz guitarist who would play for Fletcher Henderson, was It's uncertain if they ever married. Clarence abandoned Sadie when Billie was an infant.

Billie was largely raised by her mother and other relatives. A hardened and angry child, she dropped out of school at an early age and, allegedly, began working as a prostitute wi