Edna Hicks born October 14, 1895

Edna Hicks (October 14, 1895 – August 16, 1925) was an American classic blues singer and vaudeville performer.

Edna Hicks was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Victor Landreaux and Rena Moore. She was seven months younger than her half-sister Elizabeth, much better known to posterity as Lizzie Miles. In 1910 she is listed as working as a nurse and still living at home, but on 10 June 1912, as Edna Landry, she married vaudeville performer and touring company manager Will Benbow, but they separated after a few years. Her professional career was underway at least by 1916, when she appeared in "Follow Me" at the Casino Theatre, New York City.

Lafayette Theatrre

In about 1920, she married John Hicks, whose name she was using by the time she appeared in Billy King & Co's "A Trip Around The Moon" at the Lafayette Theatre, New York City in May 1921.She began making records in March 1923. It looks as though sister Lizzie, who had been recording for over a year, may have had a hand in Edna's debut. Her first title on the Victor label was backed with a Lizzie Miles recording and Edna's first Brunswick session was actually shared with Lizzie.

                                      

Like most singers of the period she recorded for several companies and between 1923 and 1924, Hicks experienced her peak commercial success, recording more than 30 tracks for seven different major record labels. These labels included Victor Talking Machine Company, Brunswick, Paramount, Vocalion, Columbia, Gennett, and Ajax. Her repertoire consisted of traditional vaudeville blues numbers exploring themes of systemic hardship, resilience, and emotional vulnerability.

Her notable commercial audio releases included "Bleeding Hearted Blues" (1923), "Down Hearted Blues" (1923), "Gulf Coast Blues" (1923), "Hard Luck Blues" (1923), and "Poor Me Blues" (1923). Hicks regularly collaborated with top-tier African American jazz and blues musicians of the era. Her most frequent studio accompanist was pianist and bandleader Fletcher Henderson. She also recorded  alongside songwriter Porter Grainger and pianists Clarence Johnson and Lemuel Fowler.

Lovie Austin

Sometime between January and March 1924 she relocated to Chicago, where her first recording session there proved to be her last. She was backed by a group led by Lovie Austin and is reputed to include Tommy Ladnier and Jimmy O'Bryant. Unfortunately when Document Records produced her Complete Recorded Works it was not available, although the record is known to exist. In December 1924 she was in the cast of "Plantation Follies" at the Plantation Café, Chicago, but Hicks' life was cut short by a domestic accident in Chicago, Illinois, in August 1925.

Proven photo Of Edna Hicks 

While assisting her husband in filling their automobile's gasoline tank, splashed gasoline was accidentally ignited by a candle she was holding. She suffered severe, widespread burns and died in a Chicago hospital two days later on August 16, 1925, at 29 years of age. She is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth, Illinois. In 2023 The Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Edna Hicks at that location.

(Edited from Document liner notes & Wikipedia) 

Footnotes: - There seems to be only one photographic image of Ena Hicks available on the web according to AI but I found one @ Find a Grave. I cannot however find any provenance for this photo, unless dear readers you know better. 

Also most sources state that her birth name was Edna Landreaux, the daughter of Victor Landreaux and Rena Moore, but researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest that her birth name was Lucille Landry, the daughter of Victor Landry and Rosa Moore.