JACKSON, MAHALIA (née MAHALA). Gospel singer ( in New Orleans, Louisiana; in Evergreen Park, Illinois). She sang in a church choir as a child and absorbed the music all about her in New Orleans, Louisiana, particularly the parades, and hearing the recordings of Bessie Smith in the air. She went to Chicago, Illinois, in December 1927. Soon thereafter she began singing in the choir of the Greater Salem Baptist Church and touring the city's small...