Born to Creole parents Emmett Roberts and Hazel Hickman in Colfax, Louisiana, her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was three.

Growing up, Churchill played violin and sang with the choir at St. Peter Claver Catholic School in Brooklyn.

In the 1930 and 1940 United States Census she and her parents are listed as Negro, as Louisiana Creoles were required to do at the time.

Churchill never denied her African American ancestry even as she attained fame, and she appeared in black publications such as Jet magazine.

Billed as "Sex-Sational", Churchill performed to much acclaim, and appeared in the movies Miracle in Harlem (1948) and Souls of Sin (1949).

Churchill's career ended in 1956 when, as she was singing on stage in a club, a drunken man fell on top of her from a balcony above, causing severe, debilitating injuries from which she would never fully recover.

[7][8] Savannah Churchill moved from Louisiana to Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn in New York with her mother Hazel Roberts and step father.