There, she became an acquaintance with jazzman Johnny St. Cyr,[1] who often heard the teenager singing at the boarding house he shared with the family on Indiana Street.
Impressed with her voice, St. Cyr eventually introduced her to the vibrant Chicago jazz music scene and Okeh Records, the label to which he was then signed.
Some critics thought her voice to be brash and too brightly colored, but industry notables were not dissuaded from working closely with her.
[2] One modern critic on AllMusic exclaimed: "...Lillie Delk Christian sang gently and sweetly, employing a soft parlor vibrato that perfectly suited much of her pop-oriented repertoire..."[1] During the height of her career, several of Chicago's top jazz musicians backed her in recording sessions.
[1][2] After a five-year hiatus from performing during the height of the Great Depression, she toured with Carroll Dickerson’s Orchestra in the mid-1930s.