Beulah Thomas, b. November 1, 1898 in Houston, TX, d. November 1, 1986 in Detroit, MI. Blues singer Sippie Wallace was a sister to Hersal Thomas and George Thomas (both piano players of some renown), and an aunt of George's blues-singing daughter Hociel Thomas. She relocated to New Orleans to begin a music career and, in 1917, married Matt Wallace. She left Houston to join her brother George in Chicago in 1923 and recorded her first single, 'Up The Country Blues', in October of that year. It was a hit and led to a career that, intermittently, spanned four decades. Her initial period of success on record and in vaudeville came to a close when she moved to Detroit in 1929 to work in the church. Wallace did not work in music again until 1937 when she sang with Jimmy Noone's Orchestra. After the war, in 1946, she recorded again but remained absent from the scene until the mid-60s when she began working on the revived blues circuit, playing colleges and clubs with her friend Victoria Spivey. In 1966 Wallace toured Europe with the AFBF, and despite suffering a debilitating stroke four years later recovered to carry on performing during the late 70s and early 80s. In 1982, modern roots artist Bonnie Raitt gained Wallace a recording contract with Atlantic Records and produced her final album, Sippie. The album was nominated for a Grammy award and won the W.C. Handy award for Best Blues Album Of The Year.
