Mickey Champion born 9 April 1925

Mickey Champion (April 9, 1925 – November 24, 2014) was an American powerhouse blues singer who was a mainstay of the Los Angeles music scene. With a career spanning over five decades, she is best remembered for her powerful vocals, and for guesting alongside other prominent musical acts.

Champion was born Mildred Sallier in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She was raised by her aunts and had her first experience as a singer at Lake Charles Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, where her grandfather was a bishop. Admired for the quality and intensity of her religious singing, she became part of a vocal trio, and while in high school was heard and praised by bandleader Louis Jordan. However, Champion, upon her family's insistence, was required to turn down an offer by Jordan to join his troupe. Shortly after graduating from high school, Champion married her first husband, Norman Champion, and in 1945, the couple moved to Los Angeles. Originally working as Little Mickey Champion, she soon lead an active career in the cities bustling nightclub scene.

The marriage between Mickey and Norman Champion was brief and soon ended in divorce.  In the late 40's and 50's she was well-known for the strength of her vocals and could fill a room without the aid of a microphone. She was also a highly praised interpreter of the blues, with a voice that sustained its emotional intensity and volume into her 80s.Though she was best known to her legions of Los Angeles fans who heard her in local venues, Champion’s far-ranging career in night spots across the country included performances on the same stage with Billie Holiday in Detroit, Sarah Vaughan in Kansas City, and Duke Ellington, T-Bone Walker, Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson and T-Bone Walker, to name but a few.

                                   

Her numerous other high visibility associations included a gig as the first vocalist to work with Percy Mayfield after the success of his hit “Please Send Me Someone to Love.” She also performed with Roy Milton — whom she eventually married, after the release of his 1945 hit, “R.M. Blues.”  Hooking up with Roy Milton’s Band was an opportunity in more than one way, as she recorded many singles with them for Modern, Dootone and King Records. Recorded live at Gene Norman’s Blues & Rhythm Show at the Shrine Auditorium in mid-1950, she belted out ‘He’s A Mean Man’ and ‘Lovin’ Jim’ to an estimated audience of 9000 jazz and R&B fans. On the same bill were Dinah Washington (Mickey’s idol) and Jimmy Witherspoon, with whom she recorded ‘There Ain’t Nothing Better’ later that year billed as His Gal Friday. 

Also in 1950 Mickey fronted the Nic Nacs (a renamed Robins group) and waxed ‘Found Me A Sugar Daddy’ and the seasonal ‘Gonna Have A Merry Xmas’, very much in the Little Esther & The Robins mould, for the Biharis’ RPM label. In the same period, the ballad ‘Everybody Knew It But Me’ and the Dinah Washington-inspired ‘I’ve Got It Bad’ appeared on the Modern label. As well as releasing four singles under her own name, the Biharis auditioned her for quite a few others. 

Although she recorded several sides with Milton in the mid-1950s they were only modestly successful, but she continued to pursue music for the rest of the decade, eventually retiring from performing in the 60's to focus on raising her children. For the next two decades she worked as a cook for the Los Angeles Unified School District, occasionally singing in clubs on weekends. Champion and Milton were married until Roy's death in 1983 after which she performed in the clubs around L.A. 

Champion returned to the recording studio in 2000 for the album I Am Your Living Legend! and again in 2003 for What You Want, which won her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Traditional Vocalist and Best Comeback Artist. A number of anthologies of her early sides were also released including the impressive Bam a Lam: The R&B Recordings 1950 to 1962. 

From 2009 Champion suffered a series of strokes and moved to an assisted living center. She remained at West Side Health Center in Los Angeles until she died on November 24, 2014.

(Edited from Wikipedia, L.A. Times, Ace Records & Vintage Vinyl News)