Alberta Hunter

1895-1984

Blues singer, nurse

Alberta Hunter lived much of her later life in the closet, hiding her true identity. She was a lesbian, but it was her career as a blues singer she was trying to hide.

Hunter, an African-American, ran away from home when she was 11. She became a successful singer who played Broadway and other famous venues around the world. In 1919, she met and fell in love with Lottie Tyler; their relationship lasted for many years although both dated men from time to time.

"Lottie had the most beautiful legs that were ever on a person," Hunter told the author of her biography, Alberta: A Celebration in Blue.

When Hunter decide she had reached the top of her singing career and there was nowhere left to go, she quit. She started looking for ways to help people.

In 1955, she began volunteering at a hospital and decided to take her elementary equivalency test. In 1957, she graduated as a licensed practical nurse. (The person who helped her get into nursing school adjusted Hunter's age back twelve years just to get her in the program.)

She kept her former fame a secret as much as possible so people wouldnÕt treat her any differently. After being forced to retire from nursing because of her age, she returned to singing and became a frequent performer at theWhite House for President Carter. She was even among the performers at the first-ever Kennedy Center Honors in 1978.

Hunter spent a lot of her life in one closet or another trying to escape the prejudices that sought her because of her color, her orientation and her fame. Somehow, though, the humble caring for others that led her to become a nurse managed to shine through circumstances that might have dimmed others.