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pete-and-pete · 6 years

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Rachel Bush, Jordan Poyer’s Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Rachel Bush is an Instagram model and the wife of professional football player Jordan Poyer. They were married in February 2018, but there were infidelity rumors just a few months later.

Poyer was accused of cheating with college student Summer Rae. He and 20-year-old Bush have appeared to have mended their relationship since then, but a feud between Bush and Rae sparked anew in October.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. Rachel Bush Claims Summer Rae is ‘Obsessed’ With Her Family & Won’t Stop Texting Them

During the summer of 2018, there was speculation that Poyer had cheated on his new wife. Those rumors were intensified when he wrote a public apology to Bush. It read, “In life we all make mistakes. Best thing to do is learn from them and to not make the same mistake twice. Letting down the ppl that mean the most to me sucks … I’m sorry @Rachel_Bush I love you to death .. can’t wait for us to grow stronger.”

The couple appears to have moved on and were working through their marital issues. But the tension publicly erupted again on October 8. The woman Poyer allegedly had an affair with, Summer Rae, shared text messages she had reportedly exchanged with Bush.

“I was told you guys were divorcing … I was not with Jordan when you called me so no I didn’t lie. Yes, there is videos … and no this isn’t a game, I don’t want your husband, I don’t want to hurt or ruin your family, I saw that y’all got back together when he came to visit you, so I said my goodbyes to him and was happy for him. It wasn’t like that at all, ik you won’t believe me and it’s already to this point and whatever happens after this I wish you guys the best!”

Bush’s alleged responses included calling Rae a “hoe” and “don’t f*ck with married men you stupid child.” You can see more of the messages here.

Bush responded to the shared text messages on her Instagram stories. She wrote in part, “Last comment i will make on this situation so it is VERY clear to everyone. I fucked up. Jordan got his feelings hurt. Lashed out with some little hoe hoe in his DMs at time from buffalo. Girl is crazy and won’t stop texting Jordan or me. I read texts of her crazy ass speaking on MY CHILD and family situation. YES i got big mad. The end lol. Now what I decide to do with my life and my daughter from here on out is completely up to me.”

2. Bush and Poyer Tied the Knot in 2018 & Have One Daughter Named Aliyah

Rachel Bush and Jordan Poyer began dating sometime in 2016. She was a college student at Florida Atlantic University at the time, and he was playing for the Cleveland Browns. She was also quickly gaining a fan base on Instagram; she now has nearly 700,000 followers on the social site.

Bush and Poyer got engaged on Christmas Day in 2016. A few days later, on December 30, they welcomed their baby girl Aliyah. According to Bush’s Facebook page, they’ve been married since February 17, 2018.

Poyer has raved about Rachel as a mother. Earlier this year, he praised her on Instagram, writing, “Words can’t explain this woman as a mother as a wife and as a friend … Aliyah is so dam lucky to call her, her mother. So caring so genuine so loving and she’s MINE .. can’t tell u how lucky I am 😍 Happy Mother’s Day my love 💙”

I'm so in love 😩😍 pic.twitter.com/VPnHUlXl4a

— Rachel (@Rachel__Bush) May 21, 2017

Read More From Heavy

Craig Coyne, Barbara Bush’s Husband: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

5. Bush Launched Her Own Line of Bikinis But it Appears the Business Did Not Take Off

My cake bikinis! Available now (link in bio) find products under "shop". I'm wearing the black reversible bottoms pic.twitter.com/1ViLiil9jq

— Rachel (@Rachel__Bush) September 5, 2016

Rachel Bush is apparently already looking beyond her modeling and Instagram fame. In 2016, she launched her own line of Brazilian bikinis. The line was called “Enjoy My Cake.”

Bush shared on Instagram that there was additional apparel available on her site, along with the bikinis. However, it appears the venture did not pan out. The website EnjoyMyCake.com is no longer operational.

In 2016, Bush also shared that was planning to release a fitness guide. It’s possible that she still plans to do that.

READ NEXT: Aladdin Cast: A Look at the Movie’s Stars as First Poster Is Released

source https://heavy.com/entertainment/2018/10/rachel-bush-jordan-poyer-wife/

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latestnews2018-blog · 6 years

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Bob Mackie on dressing Cher, Tina Turner and Elton John as Donald Duck

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/bob-mackie-on-dressing-cher-tina-turner-and-elton-john-as-donald-duck/

Bob Mackie on dressing Cher, Tina Turner and Elton John as Donald Duck

The fashion designer reminisces about sequins, surprises — and why he’ll never retire

Fashion and Costume Designer Bob Mackie poses with two of his iconic designs, a scarlet red satin gown worn by Cher in 1975, right, and a marigold jersey jumpsuit worn by Cher between 1971-1976, left, in London, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018. The gowns are estimated at 3,000-5,000 US Dollars ( 2,363-3,938 UK Pounds) each will be auctioned in the ‘Property from the Collection of Bob Mackie’ sale by Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles on Nov. 17. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

You could dine out for a lifetime on Bob Mackie’s stories. After 60 years of designing sequin-encrusted stage costumes for Cher, Bette Midler and Diana Ross, to name a few, the 79-year-old has anecdotes to spare. He sprinkles them into conversation like glitter.

He once dressed Elton John as Donald Duck, complete with tail and webbed feet, making it very difficult for the Rocket Man to play the piano. He worked with Tina Turner during her post-Ike transformation, when “she wanted to look like a sexy cave woman”. Barbra Streisand, he says, “was always questioning everything. ‘Does this really look good? Can we try on three or four, then decide?’ With that kind of sensibility, you work harder, believe me.”

He was friends with Marlene Dietrich, an uber-perfectionist whose gowns would be worn out by multiple minute alterations before they had even left the fitting room. She would also root around “in our community refrigerator, and throw out old food if she found it. And if someone was sick, there was always something in her purse that would work. She was like a grandmother.”

And then there is Cher, his closest collaborator, with whom, in the 70s, he developed a design philosophy best described as “more razzle-dazzle, less fabric”. Without him, Cher has said: “I would have been a peacock without feathers.”

Mackie was scheduled to board a cruise ship from Southampton to New York City with more than 100 of his sketches and gowns, for a seaborne exhibition to promote a sale at Julien’s Auctions, in Los Angeles and online, on November 17.

Why sell the frocks now? “When you have been in a business as long as I have,” he says, “you end up with a lot of interesting things. I certainly don’t need to keep the lot of them. I still have a lot of memories left.”

Mackie is neatly dressed in a gold-buttoned navy blazer with a cobalt-blue, silk pocket handkerchief. His hair is the colour of weak tea and he has a wide, boyish face. He looks like the treasurer of a local Rotary Club, or a daytime gameshow host, rather than a purveyor of showgirl chic.

FASHION ICON

Some of Mackie’s most vivid memories are of Cher. When they met, he says, her look was totally new: “She was the first hippy, really; the bellbottoms, the fur vests, the long straight hair. She created a whole fashion turnaround.” Together, they built her next visual incarnation, which often centred on her naked abs. “The doctor,” he says, “said she had some kind of strange malady of tight stomach muscles.” (Mackie refers frequently to the lithe proportions of his most famous canvas; he has been known to point out that her armpits were the best in the business.)

Their fashion hits included the sequin-studded, feathered “nude” dress she wore to the 1974 Met Gala, which created “a lot of hullaballoo”. Afterwards, “I got a lot of calls from performers wanting something ‘like Cher wears’ because it got a lot of attention.”

More eyeballs were drawn by Cher’s 1986 Oscars ensemble, a sort of “Big Bird goes for a night out with Maleficent in Las Vegas” number, with a perilously low-rise skirt. The outfit was conceived as a dig at the Academy, which, Cher felt, had snubbed her that year. “I wasn’t sure if it was the proper, polite thing to do,” says Mackie, noting that he was “apprehensive” about it (he is always apprehensive, he explains; a wardrobe malfunction is often just a millimetre of tape away). “Some people were horrified but it was in every newspaper,” he says. Cher loved it, of course. He says, with a knowing smile: “Halloween’s her favourite holiday.”

It was often Cher pushing Mackie to create more revealing and outlandish outfits, not the other way around. For example, she came up with the mesh bodysuit worn to mount a cannon in the video for If I Could Turn Back Time. He thought it was “vulgar and horrid. I told her: please, I don’t want any credit for this.”

EARLY YEARS

Mackie grew up in a more reserved time. His childhood sounds pretty dour: between the ages of six and 14 he lived with his British grandmother, who “believed children should be seen and not heard”. His escape was the cinema. He recalls the “religious experience” of seeing the ballet scene from An American in Paris for the first time. He built mini movie sets, complete with stars dressed in paper outfits, on top of his dresser.

In 1960, he married LuLu Porter, a singer, actor and acting teacher. They had a son, Robin, and divorced after three years. That year, when he was 23, he started working on The Judy Garland Show, assisting costume designer Ray Aghayan, who became his partner, in life and business, until his death in 2011.

Garland was, he says, “a phenomenally talented individual, but she had been so mistreated in the beginning, as a child, that she was very troubled”. The show was disastrous, with a high turnover of personnel, but the situation proved unexpectedly useful for Mackie, as he quickly met almost everyone who was anyone in the industry. It sounds tougher for Aghayan who, in the past, Mackie has said, received phone calls from Garland in the middle of the night, asking him to take her to hospital. Clearly, the dark side of Hollywood is never hidden for long, no matter how thick the crust of glitter.

Mackie is also from a time before debates about cultural appropriation in design were commonplace. Cher herself has recently been criticised for the 1973 song Half-Breed — even that title might make a contemporary audience wince — and for the Mackie-designed Native American war bonnets she wore when singing it.

Mackie doesn’t understand the fuss. “People are becoming much too sensitive about their cultures; we’re losing the humour, and that is very sad. She wore that for 40-odd years. Now, all of a sudden, you have a couple of hard-nosed people saying: ‘Oh no, she can’t.’ Well, you’re a little late honey.”

That said, he confirms that Cher won’t be wearing a war bonnet for her forthcoming tour, even though he has faithfully remade a lot of the other costumes. “I just ended up doing a whole new costume, with a different twist to it.” (The claim that Cher can sing this song because her mother has some Cherokee heritage seems to hold less water these days. Mackie says: “I don’t know how much Native American blood Cher has in her, I don’t think very much. I think she gets her dark good looks from her Armenian father.”)

Mackie’s life is still monopolised by work; he is working on the costumes for a huge Cher-themed Broadway musical. “I think I’m the oldest living designer in Hollywood,” he says. Will he ever retire? “I hope not.”

Work has been a balm in difficult times. The year 1993 was unbearable. His son died, at 33, from an Aids-related illness, and Mackie was forced to close the New York fashion business he had launched in order to move beyond pure costume design. Rather than lying low to grieve, he went straight back to work, with Midler, on the TV movie Gypsy, a project that, he has said, saved him.

Has Mackie created icons — by swathing them in sequins — or have existing icons approached him because they like his aesthetic? “It works both ways,” he says. They are also, often, women who pile on the shimmer to shine at dark times, who must always project otherworldly charisma and talent. That is quite a challenge, says Mackie, “because your public always expects to see it. They want to be delighted — ‘Oh, she’s so beautiful did you see what she wore?’ — but very often these actresses are just homebodies with kids at home and a husband. It’s when they go out and make the bucks they have to change the whole thing.”

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blackkudos · 7 years

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Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson (/məˈheɪljə/ mə-HAYL-yə; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel". She became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as "the single most powerful black woman in the United States". She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.

"I sing God's music because it makes me feel free", Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues."

Early life

She was born on October 26, 1911 as Mahala Jackson and nicknamed "Halie". Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section of the Carrollton neighborhood of uptown New Orleans. The three-room dwelling on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and a dog. This included Little Mahala (named after her aunt, Mahala Clark-Paul whom the family called Aunt Duke); her brother Roosevelt Hunter, whom they called Peter; and her mother Charity Clark, who worked as both a maid and a laundress. Several aunts and cousins lived in the house as well. Aunt Mahala was given the nickname "Duke" after proving herself the undisputed "boss" of the family. The extended family (the Clarks) consisted of her mother's siblings: Isabell, Mahala, Boston, Porterfield, Hannah, Alice, Rhoda, Bessie, their children, grandchildren, and patriarch Rev. Paul Clark, a former slave. Jackson's father, John A. Jackson, Sr. was a stevedore (dockworker) and a barber who later became a Baptist minister. He fathered five other children besides Mahalia: Wilmon (older) and then Yvonne, Edna, Pearl, and Johnny, Jr. (by his marriage shortly after Halie's birth). Her father's sister, Jeanette Jackson-Burnett, and her husband, Josie, were vaudeville entertainers. Their son, her cousin Edward, shared stories and records of Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, and Bessie Smith whose voices and blues singing impressed her so much that she would imitate their ways of bending and coloring notes. (Her voice and singing style would be compared to Bessie Smith's all her life).

At birth, Jackson suffered from genu varum, or "bowed legs". The doctors wanted to perform surgery by breaking her legs, but one of the resident aunts opposed it. Jackson's mother would rub her legs down with greasy dishwater. The condition never stopped young Jackson from performing her dance steps for the white woman for whom her mother and Aunt Bell cleaned house.

Jackson was four (or five) years old when her mother Charity died (at the age of 25), leaving her family to decide who would raise Halie and her brother. Aunt Duke assumed this responsibility, and the children were forced to work from sun-up to sun-down. Aunt Duke would always inspect the house using the "white glove" method. If the house was not cleaned properly, Jackson was beaten. If one of the other relatives could not do their chores or clean at their job, Jackson or one of her cousins was expected to perform that particular task. School was hardly an option. Jackson loved to sing and church is where she loved to sing the most. Her Aunt Bell told her that one day she would sing in front of royalty, a prediction that would eventually come true. Jackson began her singing career at the local Mount Moriah Baptist Church. At 12 years old, she was baptized in the Mississippi River by Mt. Moriah's pastor, the Rev. E.D. Lawrence, then went back to the church to "receive the right hand of fellowship".

Career

1920s–1940s

In 1927, at the age of 16, Jackson moved to Chicago, Illinois, in the midst of the Great Migration. After her first Sunday school service, where she had given an impromptu performance of her favorite song, "Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet, Gabriel", she was invited to join the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir. She began touring the city's churches and surrounding areas with the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the earliest professional gospel groups. In 1929, Jackson met the composer Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music. He gave her musical advice, and in the mid-1930s they began a 14-year association of touring, with Jackson singing Dorsey's songs in church programs and at conventions. His "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" became her signature song.

In 1936, Jackson married Isaac Lanes Grey Hockenhull ("Ike"), a graduate of Fisk University and Tuskegee Institute who was 10 years her senior. She refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life. She was frequently offered money to do so and she divorced Isaac in 1941 because of his unrelenting pressure on her to sing secular music and his addiction to gambling on racehorses.

In 1931, Jackson recorded "You Better Run, Run, Run". Not much is known about this recording and no publicly known copies exist. Biographer Laurraine Goreau cites that it was also around this time she added the "i" to her name, changing it from Mahala to Mahalia, pronounced /məˈheɪliə/. At the age of 25, her second set of records was recorded on May 21, 1937, under the Decca Coral label, accompanied by Estelle Allen (piano), in order: "God's Gonna Separate The Wheat From The Tares", "My Lord", "Keep Me Everyday" and "God Shall Wipe All Tears Away". Financially, these were not successful, and Decca let her go.

In 1947, Jackson signed up with the Apollo label, and in 1948, recorded the William Herbert Brewster song "Move On Up a Little Higher", a recording so popular stores could not stock enough copies to meet demand, selling an astonishing eight million copies. (The song was later honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.) The success of this record rocketed her to fame in the U.S., and soon after, in Europe. During this time she toured as a concert artist, appearing more frequently in concert halls and less often in churches. As a consequence of this change in her venues, her arrangements expanded from piano and organ to orchestral accompaniments.

Other recordings received wide praise, including "Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me" (1949), which won the French Academy's Grand Prix du Disque; and "Silent Night", which became one of the best-selling singles in the history of Norway. When Jackson sang "Silent Night" on Denmark's national radio, more than 20,000 requests for copies poured in. Other recordings on the Apollo label included "He Knows My Heart" (1946), "Amazing Grace" (1947), "Tired" (1947), "I Can Put My Trust in Jesus" (1949), "Walk with Me" (1949), "Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me" (1949), "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (1950), "The Lord's Prayer" (1950), "How I Got Over" (1951), "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" (1951), "I Believe" (1953), "Didn't It Rain" (1953), "Hands of God" (1953) and "Nobody Knows" (1954).

1950s–1970s

In 1950, Jackson became the first gospel singer to perform at Carnegie Hall when Joe Bostic produced the Negro Gospel and Religious Music Festival. She started touring Europe in 1952 and was hailed by critics as the "world's greatest gospel singer". In Paris she was called the Angel of Peace, and throughout the continent she sang to capacity audiences. The tour, however, had to be cut short due to exhaustion. She began a radio series on CBS and signed to Columbia Records in 1954. A writer for Down Beat music magazine stated on November 17, 1954: "It is generally agreed that the greatest spiritual singer now alive is Mahalia Jackson." Her debut album for Columbia was The World's Greatest Gospel Singer, recorded in 1954, followed by a Christmas album called Sweet Little Jesus Boy and Bless This House in 1956.

With her mainstream success, Jackson was criticized by some gospel purists who complained about her hand-clapping and foot-stomping and about her bringing "jazz into the church". She had many notable accomplishments during this period, including her performance of many songs in the 1958 film St. Louis Blues, singing "Trouble of the World" in 1959's Imitation of Life, and recording with Percy Faith. When she recorded The Power and the Glory with Faith, the orchestra arched their bows to honor her in solemn recognition of her great voice. She was the main attraction in the first gospel music showcase at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957, which was organized by Joe Bostic and recorded by the Voice of America and performed again in 1958 (Newport 1958). She was also present at the opening night of Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music in December 1957. In 1961, she sang at John F. Kennedy's inaugural ball. She recorded her second Christmas album Silent Night (Songs for Christmas) in 1962. By this time, she had also become a familiar face to British television viewers as a result of short films of her performing that were occasionally shown.

At the March on Washington in 1963, Jackson sang in front of 250,000 people "How I Got Over" and "I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned". Martin Luther King, Jr. made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech there. She also sang "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at his funeral after he was assassinated in 1968. She sang to crowds at the 1964 New York World's Fair and was accompanied by "wonderboy preacher" Al Sharpton. She toured Europe again in 1961 (Recorded Live in Europe 1961), 1963–64, 1967, 1968 and 1969. In 1970, she performed for Liberian President William Tubman.

Jackson's last album was What The World Needs Now (1969). The next year, in 1970, she and Louis Armstrong performed "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" together. She ended her career in 1971 with a concert in Germany, and when she returned to the U.S., made one of her final television appearances on The Flip Wilson Show. She devoted much of her time and energy to helping others. She established the Mahalia Jackson Scholarship Foundation for young people who wanted to attend college. For her efforts in helping international understanding, she received the Silver Dove Award. Chicago remained her home until the end. She opened a beauty parlor and a florist shop with her earnings, while also investing in real estate ($100,000 a year at her peak).

In 1970, she guest-starred on episode 56 of Sesame Street, singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", followed by Gordon Robinson (played by Matt Robinson) finding hidden E's.

Civil rights movement

Jackson played an important role during the civil rights movement. In August 1956, she met Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. at the National Baptist Convention. A few months later, both King and Abernathy contacted her about coming to Montgomery, Alabama, to sing at a rally to raise money for the bus boycott. They also hoped she would inspire the people who were getting discouraged with the boycott.

Despite death threats, Jackson agreed to sing in Montgomery. Her concert was on December 6, 1956. By then, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Browder v. Gayle that bus segregation was unconstitutional. In Montgomery, the ruling was not yet put into effect, so the bus boycott continued. At this concert she sang "I've Heard of a City Called Heaven", "Move On Up a Little Higher" and "Silent Night". There was a good turnout at the concert and they were happy with the amount of money raised. However, when she returned to the Abernathy's home, it had been bombed. The boycott finally ended on December 21, 1956, when federal injunctions were served, forcing Montgomery to comply with the court ruling.

Although Jackson was internationally known and had moved up to the northern states, she still encountered racial prejudice. One account of this was when she tried to buy a house in Chicago. Everywhere she went, the white owners and real estate agents would turn her away, claiming the house had already been sold or they changed their minds about selling. When she finally found a house, the neighbors were not happy. Shots were fired at her windows and she had to contact the police for protection. White families started moving out and black families started moving in. Everything remained the same in her neighborhood except for the skin color of the residents.

King and Abernathy continued to protest segregation. In 1957, they founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The first major event sponsored by the SCLC was the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1957, the third anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. From this point forward, Jackson appeared often with King, singing before his speeches and for SCLC fundraisers. In a 1962 SCLC press release, he wrote she had "appeared on numerous programs that helped the struggle in the South, but now she has indicated that she wants to be involved on a regular basis". Jesse Jackson said when King called on her, she never refused, traveling with him to the deepest parts of the segregated South.

At the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Jackson performed "I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned", before King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Toward the end of the speech, he departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme "I have a dream", prompted by Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!"

Jackson said that she hoped her music could "break down some of the hate and fear that divide the white and black people in this country". She also contributed financially to the movement.

Death

Jackson died in Chicago on January 27, 1972 at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois, of heart failure and diabetes complications. Two cities paid tribute: Chicago and New Orleans. Beginning in Chicago, outside the Greater Salem Baptist Church, 50,000 people filed silently past her mahogany, glass-topped coffin in final tribute to the queen of gospel song. The next day, as many people who could—6,000 or more—filled every seat and stood along the walls of the city's public concert hall, the Arie Crown Theater of McCormick Place, for a two-hour funeral service. Her pastor, Rev. Leon Jenkins, Mayor Richard J. Daley, and Mrs. Coretta Scott King eulogized her during the Chicago funeral as "a friend – proud, black and beautiful". Sammy Davis, Jr., and Ella Fitzgerald paid their respects. Joseph H. Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., delivered the eulogy at the Chicago funeral. Aretha Franklin closed the Chicago rites with a moving rendition of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand".

Three days later, a thousand miles away, the scene repeated itself: again the long lines, again the silent tribute, again the thousands filling the great hall of the Rivergate Convention Center in downtown New Orleans this time. Mayor Moon Landrieu and Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen joined gospel singer Bessie Griffin. Dick Gregory praised Jackson's "moral force" as the main reason for her success. Lou Rawls sang "Just a Closer Walk With Thee". The funeral cortège of 24 limousines drove slowly past her childhood place of worship, Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, where her recordings played through loudspeakers. The procession made its way to Providence Memorial Park in Metairie, Louisiana, where she was entombed. Despite the inscription of her birth year on her gravestone as 1912, she was actually born in 1911. Among her surviving relatives are her great-nephews, NBA basketball player Danny Granger and soul artist Scotty Granger.

Jackson's estate was reported at more than four million dollars. Some reporters estimated record royalties, television and movie residuals, and various investments made it worth more. The bulk of the estate was left to a number of relatives, many of whom cared for her during her early years. Among principal heirs were relatives including her half-brother, John Jackson, and aunt, Hannah Robinson. Neither of her ex-husbands, Isaac Hockenhull (1936–1941) and Sigmund Galloway (1964–1967), were mentioned in her will.

Legacy and honors

Jackson's music was played widely on gospel and Christian radio stations, such as Family Radio. Her good friend Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "A voice like this one comes not once in a century, but once in a millennium." She was a close friend of Doris Akers, one of the most prolific gospel composers of the 20th century. In 1958, they cowrote the hit "Lord, Don't Move the Mountain". Mahalia also sang many of Akers' own compositions such as "God Is So Good to Me", "God Spoke to Me One Day", "Trouble", "Lead On, Lord Jesus" and "He's a Light Unto My Pathway", helping Akers to secure her position as the leading female Gospel composer of that time. In addition to her singing career, she mentored the legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin. Jackson was also good friends with Dorothy Norwood and fellow Chicago-based gospel singer Albertina Walker, and she discovered a young Della Reese. On the 20th anniversary of her death, Smithsonian Folkways Recording commemorated her with the album I Sing Because I'm Happy, which includes interviews about her childhood conducted by Jules Scherwin.

American Idol winner and Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Fantasia Barrino has been cast to play Jackson in a biographical film about her life. It will be based on the 1993 book Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel. It is said to be directed by Euzhan Palcy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences created the Gospel Music or Other Religious Recording category for Jackson, making her the first gospel music artist to win the prestigious Grammy Award.

In December 2008, she was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

A prominent namesake in her native New Orleans is the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts, which was remodeled and reopened on January 17, 2009, with a gala ceremony featuring Plácido Domingo, Patricia Clarkson, and the New Orleans Opera directed by Robert Lyall.

Mahalia Jackson was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State’s highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1967 in the area of The Performing Arts.

Selective awards and honors

Grammy Award historyGrammy Hall of Fame

Jackson was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor artists whose recordings are at least twenty-five years old and have "qualitative or historical significance". Jackson is a three-time inductee as of 2015.

Honors

Well-known songs

In popular culture

Jackson appears in the 1960 film Jazz on a Summer's Day – an artistic documentary filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. She sings three gospel numbers at the end of the film, including "The Lord's Prayer".

In the 1958 movie St. Louis Blues, Jackson played the character Bessie May and sang in the church choir.

In the movie Jungle Fever, the character played by Ossie Davis tries to distract himself from his son Gator's (Samuel L. Jackson) crack cocaine addiction by listening to her albums by the hour.

In the 1959 film Imitation of Life, Jackson portrays the choir soloist, singing "Trouble of the World" at Annie's funeral. She has no speaking lines, but her singing performance highlights the climactic scene.

In the 1964 film The Best Man, Jackson plays herself, singing at a Democratic Convention in a two-minute clip.

In the television promotional special This Way to Sesame Street, Ernie mentions Jackson as one of the celebrities who occasionally visit Sesame Street.

Duke Ellington, with whom Jackson occasionally recorded, most notably on the studio version of Black, Brown and Beige, paid tribute to her on his New Orleans Suite album with the song "Portrait of Mahalia Jackson".

In the 1970 documentary movie Elvis: That's the Way It Is, Elvis Presley jokes with one of his back-up singing groups The Sweet Inspirations that, "I'm gonna bring in the Supremes tomorrow night, you know. And Mahalia Jackson singing lead with them."

Alan Parker's 1988 film Mississippi Burning starts with Jackson's famous recording of "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" over the opening credits, over a poignant scene of a pair of segregated water fountains.

In the 2014 film Selma, she is portrayed by singer Ledisi.

Columbia Records discography

World's Greatest Gospel Singer

Sweet Little Jesus Boy

Bless This House

You'll Never Walk Alone

Gospels, Spirituals, & Hymns (1956)

Live at Newport 1958

Great Gettin' Up Morning

Come On Children, Let's Sing

The Power and the Glory

I Believe

Everytime I Feel the Spirit

Recorded Live in Europe During Her Latest Concert Tour

Great Songs of Love and Faith

Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord

Silent Night

Mahalia Jackson's Greatest Hits

Let's Pray Together

Mahalia

Garden of Prayer

My Faith

Mahalia Jackson in Concert Easter Sunday, 1967

A Mighty Fortress

Christmas With Mahalia

Mahalia Sings the Gospel Right Out of the Church

What the World Needs Now

Compilations

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen (1975) Vogue

The Best of Mahalia Jackson Hymns, Spirituals & Songs of Inspiration (1976)

Mahalia Jackson's Greatest Hits (1988) Columbia Records

Mahalia Jackson: The Apollo Sessions 1946–1951 (re-issued 1994) Pair Records

The Forgotten Recordings (2005) Acrobat

Wikipedia

#Mahalia Jackson

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