By Nina Clevinger, Parade | Born in 1915 to singers in Arkansas, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is forever cemented in the history of music as the “Godmother of Rock and Roll.” Raised solely by her mother, Katie Bell Nubin, Tharpe’s — birth name Rosie Etta Atkins — entire life was shaped by the hands of a performer. She began singing and playing guitar in front of audiences at just four years old.
After moving to Chicago in 1921, Tharpe and her mother toured with an evangelist troupe throughout the South. The two continued performing together through the 1930s.
When Tharpe turned 19, in 1935, she married a preacher; Thomas Tharpe. Another performance duo, the two played radio shows where Tharpe sang and played guitar while her husband at the time preached.
Within three years, their marriage ended and Tharpe moved to New York City.
Performing at the Apollo Theater and Cotton Club, Tharpe began professionally recording in 1941. She toured with Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra until 1943.
Her work was often criticized, as she was raised in the church and her sound reflected that of gospel. Tharpe’s love of jazz, blues, nightclubs and dancers—her knack for the guitar, which at the time, was not something women did—it did not sit right with the religious community.
As Tharpe rose higher in status during the 1940s, she was still subject to Jim Crow Laws requiring racial segregation in many public places. Tharpe could perform alongside white artists, but she could not travel or eat or stay in the same places as them.
While life proceeded to hand her its challenges, Tharpe’s “continued meshing and bending of genres that laid the foundation for rock and roll allowed her to express herself in ways that were not typical of the time,” according to the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM).
Tharpe remarried in 1951, holding a wedding-concert combination alongside her third and final husband, Russell Morrison, and over 25,000 fans.
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Go here to read more of Ms. Tharpe’s bio:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/meet-the-godmother-of-rock-and-roll-who-shaped-a-generation-from-keith-richards-to-eric-clapton/