On Feb. 2, 1904, Gertrude Pridgett married William “Pa” Rainey and was from then on known as Ma Rainey.
Ma Rainey’s career spanned over 35 years. She and Pa were at one time billed as the Assassinators of the Blues. She toured with Thomas A. Dorsey and Fletcher Henderson in the Wildcats Jazz Band, and worked for a time with a young Bessie Smith. Ma Rainey signed a record deal with the Paramount label, recording more than 120 songs, many of them she wrote herself. She was a band leader, and owned a bus with her name on it.
Of the records she made perhaps the most recognized is “See See Rider,” perhaps known to most as “C.C. Rider.”
The marriage that gave her the name did not last, but Ma Rainey’s contributions to the blues are still felt well beyond her passing in 1939.