Lillian Goodner

Background

Born Lillian Paige in Montgomery, Alabama, United States she grew up in Chicago, Illinois.

Career

She was billed as "Sister Lillian: Queen of the Sepias". Her abilities as a vocalist were recognized early. She was in the cast of the revue Put and Take, which opened in New York in 1921 and subsequently toured.

In 1923-1924 Goodner recorded six sides for Ajax Records.

In the 1920s she toured major cities in the United States and Canada, as well as Europe and Australia. In the early 1930s she performed with Duke Ellington and his band.

After marrying William Penn she settled in Minneapolis and continued to work nightclubs in the American Midwest. During World World War II, Goodner performed in United States.O. shows in Detroit and Oakland, California.

In 1942 she appeared at Maxwell Field in Montgomery with Glenn Miller.

She continued to play club dates in the 1950s, and also performed on WTCN-television in Minneapolis. She occasionally performed at private parties until the 1970s, when she entered a nursing home. In 1994, a few months before Goodner"s death, her collection of publicity photos of her fellow entertainers was found in a storage shed.

These photographs, many of which she had taken herself, included images of performers such as Josephine Baker, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Valaida Snow, Glenn Miller, and Etta Moten, and many others whose names are less familiar.

According to writer Marc Bankert, "in some cases, Lillian"s photographs represent the only known images of the once-celebrated performers of her era".

Achievements

• She entered and won amateur contests before embarking on a professional career, in which she toured the country with her childhood friend, Mae Crowder, in an act billed as "The Creole Sisters".