Ella Jane Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News on April 25, 1917. She later moved to New York, where her singing talent was discovered at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. For more than half a century, she was the most popular singer in the world, performing on radio, television, in movies, and in concert halls and nightclubs around the globe. She won 13 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of the Arts, and the Kennedy Center Honors, among other distinctions. She was honored on a U.S. postage stamp issued in 2007. Fitzgerald died in Beverly Hills, California, on June 15, 1996. In her memory, the City of Newport News renamed 24th Street Ella Fitzgerald Way on October 11, 2008, and the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center's theater also bears her name.

Newport News, Virginia · United States