12 Facts About Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey performed in vaudeville and clubs, sometimes with her sisters Addie "Sweet Peas" Spivey and Elton Island Spivey.

Victoria Spivey's father was a part-time musician and a flagman for the railroad; her mother was a nurse.

Victoria Spivey had three sisters, all three of whom sang professionally: Leona, Elton "Za Zu", and Addie "Sweet Peas" Spivey, who recorded for several major record labels between 1929 and 1937.

Victoria Spivey married four times; her husbands included Ruben Floyd, Billy Adams, and Len Kunstadt, with whom she co-founded Spivey Records in 1961.

Victoria Spivey's first recording, "Black Snake Blues", sold well, and her association with the label continued.

Victoria Spivey recorded numerous sides for Okeh in New York City until 1929, when she switched to the Victor label.

Victoria Spivey's recorded accompanists included King Oliver, Charles Avery, Louis Armstrong, Lonnie Johnson, and Red Allen.

In 1951, Victoria Spivey retired from show business to play the pipe organ and lead a church choir, but she returned to secular music in 1961, when she was reunited with an old singing partner, Lonnie Johnson, to appear on four tracks on his Prestige Bluesville album Idle Hours.

Victoria Spivey recorded again for Prestige Bluesville, sharing an album, Songs We Taught Your Mother, with fellow veterans Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin, and began making personal appearances at festivals and clubs, including the 1963 European tour of the American Folk Blues Festival.

In 1964, Victoria Spivey made her only recording with an all-white band, the Connecticut-based Easy Riders Jazz Band, led by the trombonist Big Bill Bissonnette.

Victoria Spivey married four times; her husbands included Ruben Floyd, Billy Adams, and Len Kunstadt.

Victoria Spivey died in New York on October 3,1976, at the age of 69, from an internal hemorrhage.