Search results
› Parents
Early life. Portrait of Pearl Bailey (1960) Bailey was born in Newport News, Virginia [1] to the Reverend Joseph James and Ella Mae Ricks Bailey. [5] . When she was very young, the family moved to Washington, DC. After her parents' divorce, Bailey moved to Philadelphia to live with her mother. [6]
Pearl Bailey. Actress: The Fox and the Hound. Her father Joseph was a minister and her mother was named Ella Mae. Her birth name was Pearly Mae but her parents anticipated she would be a boy and when a girl was born she was nicknamed "Dickie". Her brother was entertainer Bill Bailey (1912-1978).
- March 29, 1918
- August 17, 1990
May 29, 2018 · Pearl Mae Bailey was born on March 29, 1918 in Newport News, Virginia, the same year and town that produced the legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. Her father, Joseph James, was an evangelical minister, and from an early age Bailey was singing and dancing in his church.
Pearl Bailey. Actress: The Fox and the Hound. Her father Joseph was a minister and her mother was named Ella Mae. Her birth name was Pearly Mae but her parents anticipated she would be a boy and when a girl was born she was nicknamed "Dickie". Her brother was entertainer Bill Bailey (1912-1978).
- January 1, 1
- Newport News, Virginia, USA
- January 1, 1
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
May 27, 2008 · Legendary entertainer Pearl Mae Bailey was born on March 29, 1918 in Southamption County, Virginia to Rev. Joseph and Ella Mae Bailey. She grew up in Newport News, Virginia. Bailey began her acting and singing career early at the age of 15 with her debut performance at an amateur contest at Philadelphia’s Pearl Theater.
Pearl Bailey in the Broadway production of Arms and the Girl, 1950. Bailey was the daughter of the Rev. Joseph James Bailey, and she attributed much of her vocal ability to her childhood singing in church. At the age of 15 she quit her high school in Philadelphia for a career as a singer and dancer. She appeared in cafés, nightclubs, and ...
Aug 17, 1990 · Her parents divorced and her mother remarried; she and took Pearl and her two older sisters, Virgie and Eura, and her older brother Bill with her to Washington D.C., and then on to Philadelphia. Around 1937, at the age of 15, she performed in a talent show contest in a Philadelphia nightclub, and won a 2-week paid engagement there.
