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Early life - Born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia, she moved to Yonkers, New York after her father left her and her mother when she was just an infant.

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First exposure to music - Fitzgerald rarely talked about her early life, but she often cited her mother playing 1920s popular music shows on the radio and playing records by the Boswell Sisters as the inspirations for her interest in music.

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The Boswell Sisters - Fitzgerald was a fan of Connee Boswell, the group's lead singer. "I tried so hard to sound just like her," she said much later.

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She aspired to be a dancer - But her early interest involved dancing rather than singing. When her mother played the Boswell Sisters on the record player, Fitzgerald would dance around to the songs while singing along.

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Hardships - To help contribute money to the household, Fitzgerald took on several jobs and even became a runner for local gamblers.

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Family deaths - Her mother, Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald, died in a car accident in 1932, and she moved in with an aunt in Harlem.

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A rough patch - Following the death of her mother and possible abuse by her stepfather Joseph da Silva, Fitzgerald was on the brink of beggary.

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Rough patch - Her grades plummeted and she began working as a police lookoutat a local brothel.

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Trouble with authorities - When police caught up with her, she was sent to the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, from which she ran away.

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She never discussed her early life - Fitzgerald never publicly addressed her early hardships, nor did she ever let her life story leak into her music. Fitzgerald "could turn any song into an oxygen rush of bouncing melody that reached the listener's ears as pure, untroubled joy," wrote Frank Rick for The New York Times.

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Dance routine - But through all of it, she continued to sing and dance. She developed a dance routine with friend Charles Gulliver and performed in local clubs.

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Turning point - As the result of a bet with friends, on November 21, 1934, she entered an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She was 17 years old.

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Turning point - She performed 'The Object of My Affection' and 'Judy' in the style of Connee Boswell, and won first prize.

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The Apollo Theater - Fitzgerald's original idea was to get on stage and dance, but her legs were shaking too much.

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The Apollo Theater - Up until that point, she had never seen herself as a singer. She once told Brian Linehan of the CBC, "When I first went on the stage, I went out to dance... But I'd never been in front of the lights and I saw all of those people out there, I just got stage fright. And the man said, 'Well, you're out here. Do something!'"

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Breaking barriers - At a time when singers were thin sex symbols, many band leaders were apprehensive about bringing Fitzgerald on—including drummer and band leader Chuck Webb.

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Chuck Webb - However, the drummer was so impressed by Fitzgerald's talent that he brought her on anyway. He died in 1939, and Fitzgerald assumed the band's leadership until 1942.

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Early fame - While in the band, she produced her first recording, 'Love and Kisses,' in 1935.

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National stardom - Just three years later in 1938, Fitzgerald recorded the hit that shot her into fame—'A-Tisket, A-Tasket'—which was her take on an old nursery rhyme. She was 21 years old.

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'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' - The song quickly hit number one, selling a million copies and staying on the pop charts for 17 weeks.

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Awards - She went on to win 13 Grammy Awards and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967, becoming the first African American to win at the inaugural show.

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Discrimination - In the late 1940s, Fitzgerald started working with jazz impresario and avid civil right's activist Norman Granz, of the popular Jazz at the Philharmonic series, and began touring with the Philharmonic.

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Discrimination - In 1955, Fitzgerald and Granz, along with several others, were arrested in Houston, Texas for shooting dice in her dressing room at the music hall. Authorities were growing more annoyed at African-American artists' effort to integrate audiences.

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Late career - By the 1990s, Fitzgerald had recorded more than 200 albums and sold more than 40 million copies.

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Death - Fitzgerald died at home in Beverly Hills on June 15, 1996, at 79 years old. She had previously been suffering from diabetes and its complications. She had both her legs amputated below the knees three years before her death.

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Fitzgerald's joy - Despite everything that happened in her life, Fitzgerald oozed joy. So much so, that as radio stations played songs to honor her after her death was announced, people couldn't help by smile.

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Ella Fitzgerald - "Her death wasn't precisely a cue for mourning; even a melancholy Fitzgerald performance of 'My Funny Valentine' has a buoyant inner core," reads an op-ed from The New York Times following her death.

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Legacy - Fitzgerald changed the course of American music when she, a Black woman, popularized "urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians," Frank Rich wrote for The New York Times.

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Legacy -

As Ira Gershwin famously put it, "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them."

See also: Unsung heroes: the women who took on crucial jobs during WWII

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