Pearl Bailey

American singer, actress, songwriter and author. Born 29 March 1918 in Newport News, Virginia, USA. Died 17 August 1990 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA at age 72. Married to drummer Louis Bellson (1952 -1990, her death). Mother of jazz singer Dee Dee Bellson. Pearl was a dancer, then a singer in New York in the early 1940s, touring with the Cootie Williams orchestra, and later a featured singer in night clubs, radio and TV. She was a band vocalist from 1933 - 1945. She appeared in movies, television and Broadway shows. In 1976, she became the first African-American to receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988.