Scott was born and raised in the Dorothy neighborhood of Weymouth Township, New Jersey, the first child to a Black travelling minister father and a white mother.

[2]: 20  As a minister, her father moved frequently to different small churches and he would take her along with him to where he worked, where she heard her first gospels and spirituals.

She remained at Westminster for two years, before financial concerns led to her leaving for a job as a bookkeeper at a fashion designer.

[2]: 22  She soon founded her own groups, gigging around metro New York, eventually opening for Count Basie in Newark, where he invited her to play his Harlem club.

Little by little, Scott toured in every state in America, but tired of her group: In general, my 2 bandmates were very attracted to sequins .