{{Short description|American dancer, philanthropist, and advocate (1914-1983)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Catherine Basie | birth_name = Catherine Morgan | birth_date = {{birth date|1914|04|11}} | birth_place = Columbus, Ohio, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1983|04|11|1914|04|11}} | death_place = Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas | occupation = Dancer, philanthropist, activist | years_active = | spouse = Count Basie }} '''Catherine Basie''' (née Morgan) (1914–1983) was a dancer who performed with the Whitman Sisters and starred as a featured dancer in musical short films called soundies. She married the jazz composer and bandleader Count Basie and was an advocate for civil rights and for children with disabilities.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />
== Early life and career == Catherine Basie (née Morgan) was born on April 11, 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Congress |first=United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=blk3caJsIw0C&dq=%22catherine+basie%22&pg=PA43639 |title=Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress |date=1971 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |date=1983 |title=Count Basie's Wife Dies at Home of Heart Attack |journal=Jet |volume=64 |pages=58}}</ref>
She was a champion backstroke swimmer in high school and an Olympic hopeful. Unable to adequately train for the 1936 Olympics due to a lack of financial support, Catherine ended her athletic career and began pursuing dancing. At 16 years old she joined the Black vaudeville quartet, the Whitman Sisters and became part of a trio of dancers which included Alice Whitman and Jeni LeGon known as the “Snake Hips Queens.”<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Mosbrook |first=Joe |url=https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/scholbks/135/ |title=Cleveland Jazz History |publisher=Northeast Ohio Jazz Society |year=2003 |edition=2nd |pages=50}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-21 |title=Whitman Sisters [biography]:Biography Description: Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress |url=http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.tdabio.156/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240221131338/http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.tdabio.156/ |archive-date=2024-02-21 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Basie |first=Count |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATF0DwAAQBAJ&dq=princess+aloha+catherine+basie&pg=PT262 |title=Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie |date=2016-12-14 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-4529-5320-5 |pages=135 |language=en}}</ref> She was also an accomplished singer, one of the original performers at the Copacabana nightclub in New York, and a fan dancer at Club Harlem.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=April 12, 1983 |title=Catherine Basie Obituary |work=Herald News |pages=B - 13}}</ref> Catherine was a featured dancer in short films, “soundies,” which were produced during the early 1940s. She is billed under her stage name, Princess Aloha.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Princess Aloha {{!}} Actor, Soundtrack |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1471592/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite book |last=Basie |first=Count |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATF0DwAAQBAJ&dq=princess+aloha+catherine+basie&pg=PT262 |title=Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie |date=2016-12-14 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-4529-5320-5 |pages=153 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=1 February 1943 |title=Princess Aloha may get Count |journal=Down Beat |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=13 |via=RIPM Jazz}}</ref> Princess Aloha is the featured act with Andy Iona and His Orchestra in the 1941 soundie “Hilo Hattie.” The film was produced by Sam Coslow and directed by Josef Berne.<ref>{{Citation |last=Berne |first=Josef |title=Hilo Hattie |type=Short, Music |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26453710/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_1_q_Hilo%2520Hattie |access-date=2024-04-25 |others=Princess Aloha, Andy Iona |publisher=RCM Productions}}</ref> She also starred as Princess Aloha with Charles Dorn in “My Little Grass Shack” in 1942.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385109/fullcredits |title=My Little Grass Shack (1942) - IMDb |access-date=2024-04-25 |via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage=| video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOy5tJhAxUI “Princess Aloha - Hilo Hattie], January 27, 2024, Vintage Video Clips}}
== Personal life == The marriage between Catherine and the renowned jazz composer and bandleader, Count Basie, is shrouded in some ambiguity regarding its exact timeline. According to Count Basie's autobiography, the couple eloped in late summer of 1942,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Basie |first=Count |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATF0DwAAQBAJ&dq=princess+aloha+catherine+basie&pg=PT262 |title=Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie |date=2016-12-14 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-4529-5320-5 |pages=259 |language=en}}</ref> while contemporaneous newspapers asserted their elopement occurred in January 1943.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Calvin |first=Dolores |date=1943-01-23 |title=Thru Harlem |work=The Chicago Defender |pages=18}}</ref> In early 1943, Count Basie claimed that the couple had been recently engaged, but not yet married.<ref name=":1" /> The marriage license for the couple held at the Washington State archives in Kings County is dated July 13, 1950.<ref>{{Cite web |title=King County Marriage Records, 1855-2017; Reference Number: kingcoarchmc166491 |url=https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov |access-date=April 25, 2024 |website=Washington State Archives}}</ref>
The couple had one daughter, Diane Basie, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio 1944 with cerebral palsy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=In Memory Of Diane Lillian Basie |url=https://www.thecountbasieorchestra.com/in-memory-of-diane-lillian-basie-1944-2022/ |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-29 |title=Count Basie in his own write |url=https://thebluemoment.com/2020/10/29/count-basie-in-his-own-write/ |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=thebluemoment.com |language=en}}</ref> The couple was encouraged to place their daughter in an institution, but they refused. They raised Diane at their home with the assistance of a personal nurse named Deedee.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> Due to her daughter's health struggles, Catherine became an advocate for children with developmental disabilities and was recognized for her efforts by various organizations such as United Cerebral Palsy, the Salvation Army, and Lighthouse for the Blind.<ref name=":0" />
Catherine and her husband lived in the St. Albans neighborhood in Queens, NY<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-05-17 |title=Protecting the House Where Lena Lived! |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/protecting-the-house-wher_b_574420 |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref> and in the 1970s moved to Freeport, Bahamas.<ref name=":3" /> She died of a heart attack on April 11, 1983 (her 69th birthday) at her home in Freeport.<ref name=":4" />
== Activism == Catherine was advocate for civil rights. She was an honorary member of Lambda Kappa Mu, a national sorority of African American business and professional women established in 1937.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=25 October 1960 |title=Atty. Frank D. Reeves to address LKM Region Confab. |work=Daily Defender |pages=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=LKM History- Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc. |url=https://lkmsorority.org/about/history.php |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=lkmsorority.org}}</ref> She helped raise money for civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Conference of Christians and Jews, and co-chaired a committees to honor civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Wyatt Tee Walker.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 June 1963 |title=4 Giants of Civil Rights Get Well-Earned Thanks |work=Chicago Defender |pages=8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=29 June 1963 |title=600 in NY Pay Tribute to 'Four Horsemen of Civil Rights' |work=Chicago Defender |pages=5}}</ref><ref name=":5" />
In 1953, Catherine was traveling in Ohio with her young child and maid and was denied entrance to a local restaurant. The restaurant claimed it could not serve her because it was closed, but Catherine observed other patrons entering the establishment. Catherine contacted Barbee William Durham, executive secretary of the Columbus NAACP. Durham, along with other NAACP officials, accompanied Catherine to the restaurant where they were allowed entry and given service.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 3, 1953 |title=Cafe Bars and Serves Mrs. Basie |work=The Chicago Defender |pages=1}}</ref>
In 1971, when the Basie family moved from New York City to the Bahamas, New York congressman Mario Biaggi entered a tribute to Catherine Basie into the Congressional Record highlighting her many years of work with children with disabilities.<ref name=":0" /> ==References== {{reflist}} == External links == * Papers of Catherine Basie are located within the [https://archives.libraries.rutgers.edu/repositories/6/resources/523 Count Basie family papers and artifacts.] Institute of Jazz Studies. Rutgers University Libraries. * [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1471592/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Princess Aloha], IMDb
Category:Swimmers from Ohio Category:Dancers from Cleveland Category:American jazz dancers Category:1914 births Category:1983 deaths