She was born Dorthy (sic) Fay Choncie in Direct, Lamar County, Texas, United States.
[3][4] Dorthy was born on a Texas sharecropping cotton plantation, where her mother worked and where she started toiling at the age of six.
She copied her mother who enjoyed singing, particularly the Lead Belly song, "Good Morning Blues".
Just months later, Ellis herself got paid for singing that song one Easter Sunday at a nearby juke joint.
After finding employment as a domestic worker in the Brockaway Home for Girls, she performed regularly in Oklahoma City's Deep Deuce area, and carried forward her Miss Blues moniker performing in a 'Texas shout blues' style, inspired by the whoops and hollers of Southern preachers.
[2] Ellis continued to appear live and variously performed with Richard "Groove" Holmes, Little Joe Blue, Drink Small, and for Bo Diddley.
The institution then later staged the 'Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame presents Blues, Brews & BBQ' with Ellis as the headline act.
The drama was compounded when, upon returning home after months of treatment, Ellis discovered her house had been subject to a burglary with her losing jewelry, coins and photographs from her lengthy life and career.