Jazz singer’s story marks First Thursday’s 2018 kickoff

The story of a jazz singer, told by her granddaughter, will kick off the 2018 First Thursday schedule at the Clark County Historical Museum.

Marcella Leonard will discuss the life and times of Mary Elizabeth Lockridge at 7 p.m. Thursday at the museum, 1511 Main St., Vancouver.

“My grandmother was a wonderful jazz singer,” Leonard said, and Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate that legacy, she said.

Lockridge died in 2010 at age 93, but her music will be part of Leonard’s presentation, the Vancouver resident said.

While Lockridge was billed as the “Million Dollar Grandma, ” her singing career started when she was 6 years old, around 1923.

But the family’s performing legacy goes back much further, reflecting long-vanished entertainment traditions. At one point, Lockridge’s father was a minstrel performer; her mother was a tightrope walker until she was injured in a fall.

Eventually, family members formed a vaudeville act in San Francisco, Leonard said.

One of Lockridge’s brothers became one of the most prominent black performers of the first half of the 20th century, Eddie Anderson. As the character Rochester, he was part of comedian Jack Benny’s radio and TV programs for decades.

According to a museum news release, Lockridge “was a joyous and blissful jazz singer, whose stage presence was engaging, perceptive, and offered poetic revelations that were unforgettable.

“This presentation will feature her journey from humble beginnings busking on the streets of San Francisco, to her fight against systematic racism, and to her arrival in Oregon and Washington, where her dream of being an accomplished jazz singer became reality.”

Also at First Thursday, members of Vancouver’s NAACP chapter will also talk about their new exhibit — Black History in Vancouver and the Northwest — which can be seen in the community room at the Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St., Vancouver.