(February 25th 1896 - November 10th 1967)

Born Ida Prather in Toccoa, Georgia in 1896 she grew up in Cedartown, Georgia working on the Riverside Plantation. She joined the local African Methodist Choir at a young age and became a talented Gospel singer. Her career in secular music began at age fourteen touring with "White and Clark's Black & Tan Minstrels" and continued with various other shows on the T.O.B.A. circuit. In 1916 she acquired her famous surname from a brief marriage to fellow performer Adler Cox. In March of 1922 Ida's career got a boost from her live WMC radio broadcast from the Beale Street Palace of Memphis, Tennessee. Gaining the attention of Paramount talent scouts Ida Cox singed a contract and began making records billed as the "Uncrowned Queen of Blues" in September 1923. In 1927 the successful singing star would be married to her pianist Jesse Crump.