As Women’s History Month and Women In Jazz Month come to a close, I would like to celebrate “Sassy” Sarah Vaughan who was born on March 27, 1924 in Newark, New Jersey.

Vaughan’s professional career began after she won first prize at the famed Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in 1943. Six months later, she joined Earl Hine’s big band. Her first hit was the jazz standard “Tenderly” which she recorded in 1947.

The legend-in-the-making was one of Philly’s favorite jazz singers. Vaughan graced many stages in Philadelphia, including the Powelton Café, Pep’s Musical Bar, the Arena, Uptown Theater, Robin Hood Dell (now Mann Center for the Performing Arts), Robin Hood Dell East (now the Dell Music Center), Zanzibar Blue and the Academy of Music.

A two-time GRAMMY Award winner, the “Divine One” is memorialized with a United States Postal Service Forever Stamp. The First-Day-of-Issue ceremony was held on March 29, 2016 at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall at Newark Symphony Hall.

I’m getting misty-eyed.