Memphis Minnie
b. Lizzie Douglas, 3 June 1897, Algiers, Louisiana, USA, d. 6 August 1973, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Raised in Walls, Mississippi, Memphis Minnie learned banjo and guitar as a child, and ran away from home at the age of 13 to play music in Memphis; she worked for a time with Ringling Brothers Circus. When in Mississippi, she played guitar with Willie Brown, and in the '20s made a common-law marriage with Casey Bill Weldon. However, she was with Kansas Joe McCoy by the time of their joint recording debut in 1929. Her guitar playing had a strong rhythm, coupled with the ragtime influence common among the Memphis musicians, and her singing was tough and swaggering. Bumble Bee was a hit, and Joe and Minnie recorded extensively, together and separately; their guitar duets were among the finest in blues. Apart from songs about sex and relationships, Minnie sang about her meningitis (calling it, with gallows humour, Memphis Minnie-jitis), about her father's mule, Frankie Jean, and about the guitarist Mister Tango. The McCoys moved to Chicago in the early '30s, but split up in 1935, apparently as a result of Joe's jealousy of his wife's success. By this time, Minnie's music was reflecting changing tastes, usually featuring a piano and string bass, and sometimes trumpet or clarinet and a drummer. She was a star of the Chicago club scene, as she continued to present herself on disc as the tough, independent woman she was in reality. In 1939, she began recording with her third husband, Little Son Joe (Ernest Lawlars) on second guitar. They were early users of amplification, and made swinging music, although it lacked the rich complexity of her early recordings. Her lyrics were of considerable originality, as on a graceful tribute to Ma Rainey, recorded in 1940, six months after Rainey's death. Me And My Chauffeur Blues, with its boogieing guitar, also became widely known. In the late '40s, Memphis Minnie ran a touring vaudeville company, and she continued to record after the war, playing tough electric guitar. Her efforts to keep up with trends were proving less successful, however, and in the mid-50s, she and Joe retired to Memphis. Joe was already unwell, and died in 1961, while Minnie was incapacitated from the late '50s, and lived out her life in nursing homes. 
Further reading: Woman With Guitar : Memphis Minnie's Blues, Paul And Beth Garon.