Later known as Dolores Parker Morgan, this jazz vocalist was honored in 1993 by the Smithsonian Museum of American History as one of the five surviving female vocalists of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. She started performing professionally when she was fresh out of high school after winning a 1939 amateur contest at the ~Regal Theatre in Chicago. Even though a plan existed for her to attend Howard University, she hit the road with Fletcher Henderson as a member of a trio called the Rhythm Debs. Needless to say, her mother was not pleased. Despite the fact that by 1942 this bandleader had made jazz history with fellow musical giants such as Louis Armstrong, Ben Webster, and Coleman Hawkins, the young lady was treated like she was about to gallivant off with a pack of low-life hooligans. She worked with this group for three years and it proved to be just a job rather than the road to degradation that it had been touted as. She married trumpeter Vernon Smith and joined the Earl Hines Orchestra in 1945.
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