Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia in 1917. Orphaned as a teenager she wound up in a reformatory, escaped, and was living on the streets of Harlem when she was discovered by Chick Webb. She went on to have one of the longest careers in jazz, spanning decades, had an extensive discography of recordings and received numerous awards including a Kennedy Center Award, honorary doctorate degrees from Dartmouth and Yale, and thirteen Grammys. Fitzgerald was known for her three-octave vocal range, diction, and flawless intonation, as well as her trademark scat vocalisations. She died on June 15, 1996 at the age of 79, of diabetic complications.
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