Revella Hughes

Revella Eudosia Hughes (27 July, 1895 - 24 October, 1987) was an American singer, musician and recording artist. She was one of the best known and most successful African American sopranos of the first half of the century.

Early Life

Hughes was born in Huntington, West Virginia. Her parents were George and Anna B. Page Hughes. Beginning at age 5 with piano and singing lessons, she attended Oberlin High School in Oberlin, Ohio where she also learned the violin graduating in 1915. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from Howard University in 1917.

Career

Hughes began her professional career in New York City in 1920, with several broadway shows featuring the likes of Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson and Roland Hayes. In 1923 she was made choral director for a Broadway review of Shuffle Along. During the 1920's she appeared on radio and on stage, working on the B.F. Keith circuit in her home town of Huntington, and at the Regal Theater in Chicago.

After a substantial career as a soprano, Hughes began composing and arranging on the Hammond organ, creating a live-performance compilation she titled "An Informal Hour of Music." In 1953, Hughes toured Europe and the Middle East doing U.S.O. shows, where she played the organ and was musical arranger for the Gypsy Markoff.

After retiring in 1955, Hughes was brought back to the spot-light for a round of performances connected with the Universal Jazz Coalition festival in 1980.

Personal Life

While at Howard, Hughes met Layton Wheaton, who became a dentist. They were married in 1920 and divorced in 1923. In 1932, she had returned to Huntington to take care of her widowed mother. Her mother's passing led her to stop singing for a while, which brought about her extensive work with the Hammond organ.

She died in New York in 1987 at the age of 91.