I've always loved Billie Holiday (1915-1959), even before David Sedaris wrote about singing like her. Before reading about how the FBI sent someone to get her, and he fell in love with her, chained to a hospital bed. Before learned Billie Eilish was named after her. Before I knew she was named after Billie Dove. Before I heard Strange Fruit , her greatest song, lyrics by Abel Meeropol . Early life bio: She was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Baltimore. "Eleanora Fagan [4] [5] was born on April 7, 1915, [6] in Philadelphia to African American unwed teenage couple Clarence Halliday and Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan (née Harris). Her mother moved to Philadelphia at age 19, [7] after being evicted from her parents' home in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, for becoming pregnant. With no support from her parents, Sarah made arrangements with her older, married half-sister, Eva Miller, for Holiday to stay with her in Baltimore." (Wiki...