Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans, LA, on October 26, 1911 or 1912, and died of heart failure in Chicago on January 27, 1972. Mahalia Jackson has been acclaimed America’s greatest gospel singer by world press and publicity. She is certainly the best known, with a career that included television, radio, and concerts. Her early repertoire leaned heavily upon songs of her Baptist beginnings such as Amazing Grace and The Day is Past and Gone. The strong musical life of New Orleans in the early 1900s made a profound impression upon the young Mahalia Jackson. She recorded her first record in May 1937 for Decca. From that point on, Jackson’s talent and deep-rooted faith ensured that she had the whole world in her hands. Wilfred Mellers, in Gospel Women of the Night, says: "The magnificent voice and the fervent faith are almost inseparable; a voice of such vibrancy, over so wide a range, creates a sound that is as all-embracing, as secure as the womb, from which singer and listener may be reborn."

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