<Tr> <Th> Associated acts </Th> <Td> <Ul> <Li> Fletcher Henderson </Li> <Li> Lena Horne </Li> <Li> Bessie Smith </Li> <Li> Billie Holiday </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> Fletcher Henderson </Li> <Li> Lena Horne </Li> <Li> Bessie Smith </Li> <Li> Billie Holiday </Li> </Ul> <P> Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896--September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress . Waters frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, but she began her career in the 1920s singing blues . Waters notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award . She was also the first African - American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962 . </P> <P> Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1896, as a result of the rape of her teenaged mother, Louise Anderson (believed to have been 13 years old at the time, although some sources indicate she may have been slightly older), by John Waters, a pianist and family acquaintance from a mixed - race middle - class background . He played no role in raising Ethel . Soon after she was born, her mother married Norman Howard, a railroad worker . Ethel used the surname Howard as a child, before reverting to her father's name . She was raised in poverty by her grandmother, Sally Anderson, who worked as a housemaid, along with two of her aunts and an uncle . Waters never lived in the same place for more than 15 months . She said of her difficult childhood, "I never was a child . I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family ." </P>

Which blues singer is best remembered for her recording of stormy weather