Bette McLaurin born 6 December 1929

Bette McLaurin (born December 6, 1929) is an American singer best known for her jazz-influenced ballad and R&B performances in the 1950s. Two of her recordings, "I May Hate Myself In The Morning" (1952) and "Only A Rose" (1953) reached the Billboard pop charts. 

McLaurin was born in North Carolina on December 6, 1929. She studied classical music and aspired to become a concert singer, before her mother persuaded her to start a career in popular music. Bette was very short as one account said she was four feet, nine inches and 99 pounds. The first mention of Bette is in 1949, when the July 16 New York Age said she'd sung "a pleasing 'Summertime'" at an affair at the Club Harlem on 145th Street in Manhattan. By August  1950 she made her first recording, "Crying My Heart Out Over You", with the Claude Hopkins Orchestra for Big Nickel Records, a small R&B label. By 1952, the company had folded and she recorded the first of six singles for Derby Records in New York City. 

Her first recording for the label was "Bewitched” with Freddie Mitchell's Orchestra backing her. Another orchestra leader who recorded for Derby was Eddie Wilcox with whom she released "The Masquerade Is Over" in July 1951. This is the song she'd be most identified with over the years (and she'd record it on three separate occasions). Another recording was “I May Hate Myself In The Morning", which was written by Bennie Benjamin and George Weiss, and recorded with the Rex Kearney Orchestra. The song rapidly became a hit, reaching no.23 on the national pop chart, a remarkable achievement at the time for an "R&B-tinged" record on an independent label. She toured in the US and Canada with The Ink Spots, and her follow-up record, "My Heart Belongs to Only You", with vocal group the Striders, was also a success. 

                                  

At the end of 1952 she signed with the Coral label, a subsidiary of Decca Records, and appeared at the Apollo Theater. The following year she had her second chart hit, "Only A Rose", backed by the Sy Oliver Orchestra; the record reached no.25 on the Billboard pop chart. She also toured with R&B stars Illinois Jacquet and Willie Mabon, and had residencies in Chicago and Detroit, although she claimed to prefer singing opera to the blues. Although it was not publicized that Bette had been married, she divorced drummer Bob Hayling around this time. 

Early in 1954 she appeared with Dizzy Gillespie, Dusty Fletcher and George Kirby in Philadelphia, and toured with vocal group the Dew Droppers. She left Coral, and Derby issued some unreleased tracks by her on their subsidiary Central label, but she did not record again until later in the year when she joined the Jubilee label, who marketed her as a pop rather than R&B performer. However, her recordings were unsuccessful and she recorded for her manager Phil Rose's Glory label, backed by vocal group the Four Fellows, featuring Larry Banks. 

Although changing musical tastes meant that she was increasingly relegated to occasional performances, she recorded "What A Night For Love" for Atco in 1957, “Forever Forever” for the Bon Ton label in 1958, “Goodbye My Love” for O Gee Records in 1959  and "Zip" for Capitol in early 1960, then, all went on the recording front until May of 1964 when she recorded "You're the Greatest", a tribute to boxer Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) on the Almont label and "As Long As You're Mine" on the Pulse label in 1965. In 1969 she released another single, "The Masquerade Is Over", on the Conclave label which was a division of Realm. 

Realm was still handling Bette in April 1970, but that's the final mention of her in any publication. It's possible that her diabetes prevented any further activity in the entertainment field as her later life seems to be unreported. According to music historian Marv Goldberg, McLaurin may have moved to Jamaica, Queens as public records show that she still lived there as late as 2001, but no subsequent documentation appears to exist.  As of 2018 Marv Goldberg couldn’t find any death notices for her. 

What is even more confusing is that her name is spelled, in write-ups, as "Bette", "Betty", and "Bettie". Any of these could occasionally be paired with "McLauren" or "McLarin."

 (Edited from Wikipedia & Marv Goldberg who gets a big thanks  especially for the loan some of his photos)