Bessie Griffin

[3] Griffin sang two songs to an audience of over 40,000 people,[4] who had come to celebrate Jackson's 25th anniversary in the music business and was well received.

[1] When her recording of "Too Close" in 1953 failed to gain the acceptance she had hoped, Griffin joined The Caravans, a gospel group led by Albertina Walker.

[4][5] After opening in Los Angeles, the musical Portraits In Bronze, based upon Sweet Flypaper of Life by Langston Hughes, she toured the show in Las Vegas and various California night clubs and theaters.

[4][6][7] Griffin's voice was described by Leonard Feather of the Los Angeles Times as similar to both Bessie Smith and her mentor Jackson, but with "a broad and genuine range without falsettos, excellent enunciation and a deep spirituality which can hardly fail to excite with its honesty and power".

[4] She joined the night club circuit in the 1960s singing and recording gospel albums and appeared on television, but never realized large earnings.

[4] She struggled with health problems, in 1970 had a heart attack, and had a long battle with peritonitis, which required several hospitalizations that interrupted her career.

The following year, she was recorded by Anthony Heilbut in her home, singing a variation of "The Lord Will Make A Way", which was later released on an album with other artists called All Of My Appointed Time.

[citation needed] Her most known recordings included Come Ye Disconsolate, It's Real, Soon-ah Will Be Done With the Trouble of the World and The Days Are Passed and Gone.