#alberta hunter

30 Days of Pride Day 12- Alberta Hunter

Alberta Hunter was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. Hunter was a lesbian and mixed in the famously liberal and accepting circles of LGBTQ jazz singers during what became known as the “Harlem Renaissance.” In the 1920s, Hunter met Lottie Tyler, niece of comedian Bert Williams, in Chicago in the late 1910s and the two were in an on-again, off-again relationship for many years until Tyler’s death. 

During World War II, Hunter took charge of a U.S.O. singing troupe, whom she took to Casablanca and entertained troops both during and after the war. They also performed for President Eisenhower, who invited them to a reception for British senior officer Bernard Montgomery. Her mother’s death soon after sparked a change in career choice, and she became a nurse.

Hunter resumed her singing career 20 years later in 1977, at the age of 82, and continued to perform until her death seven years later.