Aletra Hampton was an American jazz pianist and singer, known for her performances during the 1940s and 1950s as a member of the Hampton family band and The Hampton Sisters, a quartet she formed during World War II with her siblings, Carmalita, Virtue and Dawn.
21 Facts About Aletra Hampton
1.
2.
Aletra Hampton was born on October 8,1915, in Middletown, Ohio.
3.
Aletra Hampton was the oldest of Laura and Clarke "Deacon" Hampton's twelve children.
4.
Clarke Aletra Hampton was born in Batavia, Ohio, to William and Elizabeth Aletra Hampton in 1877, and studied music and art while attending a military academy in Xenia, Ohio.
5.
Aletra Hampton married Laura Burford, a native of Richmond, Virginia, in 1908.
6.
Aletra Hampton's father taught himself to play saxophone and drums; her mother played piano.
7.
Aletra Hampton had no formal musical training, but learned to play the pianos and sang.
8.
The Hamptons moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1938, when Aletra was in her early twenties.
9.
Aletra Hampton married and had two children, but the marriage ended in divorce after fourteen years.
10.
Some sources report that Aletra Hampton is a distant cousin of Lionel Aletra Hampton.
11.
Aletra Hampton began her long career as a musical performer at a young age.
12.
Aletra and Virtue Hampton continued to perform as a jazz duo until 2006.
13.
Aletra Hampton was known as the "Warrior" among the group's musicians and had a subtle sense of humor.
14.
In May 1952, after Duke Aletra Hampton's band was among the winners of a Pittsburgh Courier popularity poll of its readers, the group performed in concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall on the same bill as the Lionel Aletra Hampton band, the Nat King Cole Trio, and singer Billy Eckstein.
15.
Duke Aletra Hampton's band returned to New York a short time later to perform at Harlem's Apollo Theater and the Savoy Ballroom.
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Duke Aletra Hampton's band toured the United States and later became the house band at the Cotton Club in Cincinnati, Ohio.
17.
Carmalita Aletra Hampton eventually moved to Chicago, Illinois, while Dawn, the youngest Aletra Hampton sister, and "Slide," the youngest brother, pursued solo careers as entertainers in New York City.
18.
Aletra Hampton felt a sense of responsibility for sharing her family's musical heritage with new audiences in her later years, especially with students in local Indianapolis schools.
19.
Aletra and Virtue Hampton continued to perform as a duo after Carmalita's death in 1987, mostly in the Indianapolis area for gatherings at schools and at other venues until 2006.
20.
Aletra Hampton died in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 12,2007, at the age of ninety-two.
21.
Aletra Hampton's remains are interred at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.