Sippie Wallace: Houston’s Blues Mother

Today is the birthday of Sippie Wallace. She would be 128 today.

Beulah Thomas was born in Houston, Texas on November 1, 1898. She grew up in the Third Ward singing in the Shiloh Baptist Church, the same gospel current that ran through the Texas blues tradition from the beginning. She moved to New Orleans, then Chicago, where she began recording for OKeh Records in 1923. She billed herself as Sippie Wallace — a name that stuck. Her voice had the directness of someone who had seen enough to speak plainly about all of it.

The Mentor Bonnie Raitt Never Forgot

Wallace recorded blues standards alongside Louis Armstrong and Clarence Williams in the 1920s. Then she spent decades away from recording, working in the church. She returned to performing in the 1960s folk revival, making new records and touring college campuses. Bonnie Raitt heard her and was transformed. Raitt has credited Wallace as one of her most important influences — and the two recorded together. Wallace died November 1, 1986, in Detroit, on her 88th birthday. The Houston church singer had outlasted everyone. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.