Washington, Ernestine B.
(1914–1983)
Washington, Ernestine B. “The Songbird of the East”; “Little Momma” (1914, Little Rock, AR; July 1983, Brooklyn, NY) Ernestine Beatrice Thomas Washington started singing at age four. Her mother was a popular sanctified singer in the Little Rock black community. A friend of Rosetta Tharpe, Ernestine completed high school in Little Rock and was engaged in domestic work while still singing in church. At the annual Conventions of the Church of God in Christ she met and married the Reverend…