ALDERSON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Alderson Federal Prison Camp is notable in the cultural history of the Mountain State in that it has housed a great many nationally known individuals as inmates.
Included among such names are television personality and businesswoman Martha Stewart, Sara Jane Moore, and legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday.
The minimum-security facility, first opened in 1928, was the first federal women’s prison to be established in the United States. The 159 acre facility is the largest employer in the town of Alderson, West Virginia.
In 1947, jazz singer Billie Holiday was peaking commercially, having found success with a number of ballads and having found herself in the upper echelon of DownBeat Magazine’s rankings of contemporary female vocalists.
Holiday was also immersed in widely publicized substance abuse issues during this time, and on May 16, 1947, was arrested in her New York apartment for Narcotics Possession. She was sentenced on May 27, 1947 to serve time at Alderson, and lost her New York City Cabaret Card as a result of the conviction.
As such, Holiday would no longer be permitted to perform at venues which sold alcohol, restricting her financial options severely later in life and limiting her generally to performing in theaters and concert venues.
While little is known of Holiday’s time in Alderson, she did see an early release due to good behavior, and left the facility on March 16, 1948. Upon her release, Holiday played multiple sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall, and even had a well-received production sell out on Broadway.
Despite a warm critical reception and a fair amount of commercial success, Holiday’s involvement in heavy drug and alcohol use continued. The singer was once again arrested on January 22, 1949 in her San Francisco hotel room, though a jury eventually found not guilty in this instance.
Holiday’s health deteriorated significantly over time due to continued substance abuse, and by 1959 she had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, a condition which would ultimately result in the singer’s untimely demise.
Despite orders from her doctor to cease alcohol use, Holiday soon resumed regular drinking and was transported on May 31, 1959 to New York Metropolitan Hospital, the last place anyone would see her alive.
During her time at New York Metropolitan Hospital, authorities claimed to have found heroin in Holiday’s room. She was subsequently arrested and handcuffed to her hospital bed, with a police guard having been assigned to her room.
Holiday received last rites on July 15, and passed away two days later on July 17, 1959 at 3:10 AM. The cause of death was pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver. She was 44 years old.
Since her passing, recognition of Holiday’s talents and contributions to music as a whole has increased substantially. Holiday, or Lady Day as she was also known, was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and ASCAP Jazz Walk of Fame.
Holiday remains a highly influential force in the jazz genre in particular, with legions of subsequent singers and musicians having cited the singer as a key inspiration. Frank Sinatra, himself one of the most successful musical acts in American history, cited Holiday as his greatest musical influence.
“With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me,” Sinatra once said. “Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.”
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