Sarah Vaughan

American singer who was known as, "The Divine One," and recognized for her black jazz. As the owner of a controlled vibrato with a two-octave range and a four-octave contralto, she sang in nightclubs, on European tours, at concerts, on TV and did records. Throughout a recording career of 45 years she did dozens of incomparable masterpieces. In addition, she wore two faces, one of an ingenious jazz singer, and another of an exquisite pop diva.

The daughter of a carpenter who played guitar and a laundress who sang in the church choir, Sarah learned to love music from the time she was a kid, and played piano from age seven. She got a big break in October 1942, when, at the urging of her friends, she performed at an amateur night in Harlem's Apollo Theater. Her exquisite rendition of "Body and Soul" won first price, captivating the audience, among whom was singer Billy Ekstine. Six short months later she was singing with him and the Earl Hines band. She followed Eckstine when he left to form his own band but by the mid-1940s, her career on the rise, she went solo. Her range, her silky vocals, her wide repertoire and her jazzy, soulful and romantic renditions, appealed to an ever-widening audience over the next several decades.

On 18 September 1947 she was married to trumpeter George Treadwell; he became her manager and oversaw her transition to singing pop songs. However, the marriage ultimately ended in divorce, one of four ventures into matrimony with Clyde Atkins, football player, Marshall Fisher,restaurateur and Waymon Reed, trumpet player. She had one daughter, Deborah Paris Vaughan, who was adopted.

Vaughan died of lung cancer after a year of illness on 3 April 1990, Hidden Hills, CA