Edna Hicks

Who was Edna Hicks?

Edna Hicks was an American blues singer and musician. She is best remembered for her recordings of "Hard Luck Blues" and "Poor Me Blues". She also recorded "Down Hearted Blues", and "Gulf Coast Blues" on the Brunswick label in 1923.

Born Edna Landreaux in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, she was the half-sister of Lizzie Miles. She is believed to have moved north in her mid-teens. Popular in black vaudeville in the American midwest in the late 1910s and 1920s, she appeared often in Chicago and Cincinnati, and made recordings for seven different record labels in 1923 and 1924: Victor, Vocalion, Columbia, Gennett, Brunswick, Ajax, and Paramount Records. Her most frequent accompanist was Fletcher Henderson, although recordings also used Porter Grainger and Lemuel Fowler.

In August 1925, while assisting her husband in filling their automobile's gasoline tank, she was burned after splashed gasoline was ignited by a candle she was holding. She died in a Chicago hospital two days later, on August 16, at 29 years old.