Uncredited photographer for New York World-Telegram · Public domain

Born Elizabeth Holzman, she became one of Broadway's defining torch singers with her 1929 performance of "Moanin' Low" in The Little Show, a smoky-voiced style that carried five singles into the pop top ten. Her life took a darker turn in 1932 when her husband, tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds, died of a gunshot wound a coroner's inquiry ruled a murder; she was charged and later released. She spent her later decades as a civil-rights patron, funding causes tied to Martin Luther King Jr. and refusing, alongside guitarist Josh White, to perform at segregated venues.