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There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

Ethel Waters

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Ethel Waters
Age: 80 †
Born: 1896
Born: October 31
Died: 1977
Died: September 1
Film Actor
Jazz Musician
Singer
Stage Actor
Vocalist
Chester
Pennsylvania
Blues
Singing
Emotional
Always
People
Outlet
Outlets

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I'm not afraid to die. I'm looking forward to it. I know the Lord has His arms wrapped around this big sparrow.
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There is a great supply of amateur undertakers in show business.
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There is a certain type of white Southerner who respects certain Negro individuals.
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I dressed plain, but my partners were always spending more money on clothes than I could afford.
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In her whole life Mom never earned more than five or six dollars a week. Being without a husband, it was hard for her to find any place at all for us to live.
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Though I was a Catholic, I recognized that Protestant churches had something.
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What broke Mom's heart was realizing that her children knew nothing and cared nothing about the better side of life.
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Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.
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My whole family could sing. My family harmonized without any instruments to accompany them.
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I found that a couple of bottles of beer would give me a lift, but the third bottle would sober me up.
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When you dominate other people's emotions, the time has to come when you will have to pay, and heavily, for that privilege.
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There had been lots of crises in my life. And there was plenty of spunk and battle cry still left in me.
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I had a probing mind and an elephant memory.
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I want affection and tenderness desperately, but there's something in me that prevents me from handing it out.
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I wanted to be with the kind of people I'd grown up with, but you can't go back to them and be one of them again, no matter how hard you try.
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Mom was the greatest influence of my childhood. She wanted to save me from the vice, lust, and drinking that was all about me.
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My aunts lived on liquor and seldom felt like eating much. I don't know what's wrong about a kid stealing when he's hungry.
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