Her vocal style inspired later R&B and soul singers, among them LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Wynona Carr and Billy Wright.

She developed a stage wardrobe that appealed to black southern agricultural workers who at that time were migrating from the south to the US northern industrial cities.

Her stage show was performed barefoot, with a straw hat, braids, backwoods clothes and a basket to evoke memories of the rural south.

When her act started she would move into the latest dances and songs sung with a deep feeling coming from bitter experience.

Her Sunbeam recordings were now republished on the Old Swingmaster label and she enjoyed some success in the Detroit area based at the Frolics Bar.

Her comedic talent gave her a small film role in Campus Sleuth, a 1947 B-movie made by Monogram Pictures, and produced by The Bowery Boys and Charlie Chan.

In 1948, she performed alongside Dizzy Gillespie at the fourth famed annual Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. on September 12.

[10] Also on the program that day were Frankie Laine, The Sweethearts of Rhythm, The Honeydrippers, Joe Turner, Jimmy Witherspoon, The Blenders, and The Sensations.

In late 1960 she came out of semi retirement to record an LP for the Chess label, produced by Sonny Thompson, entitled The Loneliest Gal in Town.