American singer-songwriter Bessie Smith was BOTD in 1894. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she was orphaned in childhood, busking in the street for money with her siblings. She joined a travelling performance troupe in her teens, where she was mentored by singer Ma Rainey, and eventually became a star attraction on the Black vaudeville circuit. Signed by Columbia Records in 1923, she had huge success as a blues singer, with famous recordings of American standards Down Hearted Blues, Baby Won’t You Please Come Home, Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out. By the 1930s, she was the highest-paid Black entertainer of her generation. Openly bisexual, her song lyrics emphasised women’s independence, resilience and sexual freedom. Her career was stalled by the Great Depression and the advent of sound film, which overtook vaudeville as popular entertainment. She continued touring and performing, appearing on Broadway in the musical Pansy and making a brief appearance in the 1929 film St Louis Blues. Married in 1923, she was openly bisexual, having affairs with Rainey, Gertrude Saunders and Lillian Simpson. In her final years, she lived in a common-law marriage with her friend Richard Morgan. Smith died in 1937, aged just 43, after sustaining injuries in a car accident. Edward Albee’s 1959 play The Death of Bessie Smith perpetuated the myth that Smith was denied medical assistance because she was Black, though this has since been discredited. Buried in an unmarked grave, a headstone was finally provided in 1970 by singer Janis Joplin, who cited Smith as a major influence on her work.