Today in Louisiana Music History

The first Queen of Gospel Music, Mahalia Jackson, passed on this day in 1972 in Evergreen Park, Illinois. She was born in 1911 in New Orleans and was brought up in the Black Pearl area of the city bordered by South Carrollton Avenue and St. Charles Avenue. In the mid-thirties, she began working with the composer Thomas Dorsey, a fruitful relationship that lasted fourteen years. Jackson's recording career began in earnest after her late thirties recordings for Decca. In 1950 she became the first gospel singer to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall. She continued to record and travel the word thrilling her audiences singing only gospel music until her death.