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Josephine Baker

Origin: St. Louis, Missouri
(June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975)

Heroic Values: Achievement, Courage, Perseverance, Selflessness, Tolerance, Vision

Background

Freda Josephine Baker dropped out of school at age 12 to take up dancing. She became involved in vaudeville, becoming the highest paid dancer before she left her teens.

At the end of 1925 she performed in Paris and became a huge hit. She toured Europe and ended up choosing to leave her work in America and concentrate on Paris. It was a popular time for Americans to live in Paris and she became arguably the most famous of them all. Ernest Hemingway called her the "most sensational woman anyone ever saw". She also impressed F. Scott Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso.

In 1934 she transformed herself into a singer who danced rather than a dancer who sang. Her fame continued to increase and when France fell to the Nazis she was considered untouchable. Using this luxury, she worked with the Resistance. Her work in smuggling information resulted in many awards at the end of the war.

Baker was also very vocal in her support for civil rights. She worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. and created her own international family by adopting twelve children from around the world. Whenever she performed in America she refused to play to segregated audiences and once walked out of a restaurant with Grace Kelly after she was refused service.

Josephine Baker died days after performing revues in New York and Paris to packed crowds.

Sources

Wikipedia
The online encyclopedia

Women in History
Living vignettes of notable women

Official Website
The biography page