Her notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?

Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1896 (some sources incorrectly state her birth year as 1900[5][1][6]) to African-American mother Louise Anderson (1881–1962).

[9] Stephen Bourne opens his 2007 biography, Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather, with the statement that genealogical research has shown that Louise Anderson may have been 15 or 16 years old.

According to jazz historian and archivist Rosetta Reitz, Waters's birth in the North and her peripatetic (or nomadic) life exposed her to many cultures.

Waters first married in 1910 at the age of 13, but her husband was abusive, and she soon left the marriage and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel, working for $4.75 per week.

Despite her early success, she fell on hard times and joined a carnival traveling in freight cars headed for Chicago.

She enjoyed her time with the carnival and recalled, "the roustabouts and the concessionaires were the kind of people I'd grown up with, rough, tough, full of larceny towards strangers, but sentimental and loyal to their friends and co-workers."

Jazz historian Rosetta Reitz pointed out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country.

Around that time, Waters was approached by Maury Greenwald for the London run of Plantation Days,[18] although she later joined the company on its return to Chicago in August 1923, as an "extra added attraction" to "save the fast-flopping revue".

In 1933, she had a featured role in the successful Irving Berlin Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer with Clifton Webb, Marilyn Miller, and Helen Broderick.

[11] She became the first black woman to integrate Broadway's theater district more than a decade after actor Charles Gilpin's critically acclaimed performances in the plays of Eugene O'Neill beginning with The Emperor Jones in 1920.

[21] Waters held three jobs: in As Thousands Cheer, as a singer for Jack Denny & His Orchestra on a national radio program,[11] and in nightclubs.

It included a dramatic performance of the Broadway play Mamba's Daughters, based on the Gullah community of South Carolina and produced with her in mind.

"[28] In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding.

[32] Her first autobiography, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, (1951), written with Charles Samuels, was adapted for the stage by Larry Parr and premiered on October 7, 2005.

[33] In 1953, she appeared in a Broadway show, At Home With Ethel Waters that opened on September 22, 1953, and closed October 10 after 23 performances.

[35][36] According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Waters identified as bisexual early in her career, though she never spoke publicly about her sexuality, and had a large gay and lesbian following that included photographer Carl Van Vechten.

[37] During the early 1920s, she reportedly lived in Harlem with dancer Ethel Williams, identified by several historical retrospectives as her romantic partner.

Lucioni asked Waters if he could paint her portrait, and a sitting was arranged at his studio at 64 Washington Square South.

Lucioni positioned Waters with her arms tightly wrapped around her waist, a gesture that conveyed vulnerability, as if she were trying to protect herself.

Huntsville (Alabama) Museum of Art Executive Director Christopher J. Madkour and historian Stuart Embury traced it to a private residence.

Years later, she gave this testimony of that night: "In 1957, I, Ethel Waters, a 380-pound decrepit old lady, rededicated my life to Jesus Christ, and boy, because He lives, just look at me now.

[50] Waters had given a collection of her papers, recordings, and personal effects to her friend Joan Croomes, which were later placed at the Harry Ransom Center where they are now available for research.