[1][2] At various times she performed with Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, and Duke Ellington, and she was often promoted as the "Queen of the Blues".

[2][4] She continued to play with touring shows, and in 1954 was reported as being the lead blues singer with the Rabbit's Foot Minstrels.

"[6] John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton also credited her with giving them their start in the music business.

[2] She began singing gospel music rather than secular blues, giving up her nightclub engagements but becoming a star at local church events.

She performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and sang for President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1980.

[6][8] She toured Europe again in the 1990s,[4] and continued to perform at blues festivals until shortly before her death in 2000, at the age of 97.