Famous American Women's Song for the Blues

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Song for the Blues

The "blues" is a form of music that tells of human suffering. As the saying goes, "You gotta pay the dues if you wanna sing the blues." In no other way than persevering the suffering of abandonment, separation, divorce, infidelity, loss, alcoholism, and prejudice could Jackie Kennedy, Bessie Smith, and Mahalia Jackson have inspired the powerful empathy of a nation. "We rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." This biblical scripture personifies the lives of Jack8ie Kennedy, Bessie Smith, and Mahalia Jackson. Through their own personal suffering, each of these women's lives "became all human sorrow." Their suffering and perseverance became the words for a nation's "song for the blues."

For instance, Jackie Kennedy's "song for the blues" started early in her childhood, with the divorce of her parents. She continued the suffering when she was forced to spend her childhood divided between her parents in New York City and Long Island. She was compelled to totally exclude her father from her life when her mother remarried and moved Jackie and her younger sister to Washington, D.C. Jackie's "song for the blues" began with the separation and divorce of her parents, but even as a young child she persevered and was hopeful for the future.

Jackie was optimistic as she entered womanhood. She graduated from George Washington University and accepted a job with a local newspaper as an "inquiring photographer." She began dating the handsome and aspiring Senator John F. Kennedy. Although their romance progressed slowly, they finally married in 1953. This was a time of happiness, of being in love, and of planning for the f...

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...s. Mahalia persevered by becoming an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. A driving force in her life was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because he believed, as she did, that nonviolence was the means of eliminating racial tension. She sang songs such as "Amazing Grace' to give hope to all people to persevere.

In conclusion, Jackie Kennedy, Bessie Smith, and Mahalia Jackson are all quite different in that the lived at different times in American history and hailed from diverse backgrounds. Despite their differences, they each suffered and persevered. They played the hand that life dealt them, and through their suffering and perseverance they developed character and hope that should be a lesson to all mankind. These three American women each had their own "song for the blues;" they each sang a different song, none of which should be forgotten by our nation.

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