'First Lady of Song' featured during Black Heritage month

Joe Teague, Rusk native now of Jacksonville, stops by the Rusk Post office to purchase Ella Fitzgerald Black Heritage postage stamps. Toni Guinn, post office employee, sells the stamps to Mr. Teague.

Long-time jazz musician and retired band director Joe Teague couldn't let the month of February pass without adding his stamp of approval to a new postage stamp honoring one of his favorite singers.

"The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald, is commemorated this year during Black Heritage Month with a new postal stamp.

Miss Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy awards and sold more than 40 million albums during her career.

She worked with jazz greats from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman, and performed around the world.

Miss Fitzgerald's career was officially launched in 1934 when her name was drawn at the Apollo Theatre in New York, and she was given the opportunity to compete in amateur night at the age of 17.

Two years later, she recorded her first album, which received good reviews and moderate success.

Once she made it to the touring circuit, Miss Fitzgerald fought to overcome race discrimination. She felt that all musicians should be treated equal, regardless of their color.

Fans were surprised to learn that Miss Fitzgerald needed quintuple coronary bypass surgery in 1986, and the press carried reports that she might not perform again.

However, the jazz musician returned to a rigorous and exhaustive performing schedule. By the 1990s, she had recorded more than 200 albums.

Her final career performance was in 1991 at Carnegie Hall in New York - which was the 26th time she entertained audiences there.

Miss Fitzgerald suffered from diabetes in her final years and had both legs amputated. She died in 1996 at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. at the age of 86.