Edna Hicks

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title: "Edna Hicks" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1890s-births", "1925-deaths", "blues-musicians-from-new-orleans", "classic-female-blues-singers", "american-blues-singers", "paramount-records-artists", "gennett-records-artists", "columbia-records-artists", "ajax-records-artists", "singers-from-louisiana", "20th-century-african-american-women-singers", "20th-century-american-women-singers", "20th-century-american-singers", "african-american-catholics", "burials-at-holy-sepulchre-cemetery-(alsip,-illinois)", "year-of-birth-uncertain"] description: "American blues singer and musician" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_Hicks" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American blues singer and musician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]

Field	Value
name	Edna Hicks
image	File:Edna_Hicks.jpg
birth_name	Edna Landreaux or
Lucille Landry
alias	Edna Landry
birth_date	or 1895
birth_place	New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
death_date	(aged 29-33)
death_place	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
genre	Blues
occupation	Singer
years_active	c.1910–1925
::

| name = Edna Hicks | image = File:Edna_Hicks.jpg | caption = | image_size = | birth_name = Edna Landreaux or Lucille Landry | alias = Edna Landry | birth_date = or 1895 | birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. | death_date = (aged 29-33) | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | origin = | instrument = | genre = Blues | occupation = Singer | years_active = c.1910–1925 | label = | website =

Edna Hicks (October 14, 1891 or 1895 – August 16, 1925) was an American blues singer and musician. Her recorded songs include "Hard Luck Blues" and "Poor Me Blues". She also recorded "Down Hearted Blues", and "Gulf Coast Blues" on the Brunswick label in 1923.

Biography

She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Although most sources state that her birth name was Edna Landreaux, the daughter of Victor Landreaux and Rena Moore, researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest that her birth name was Lucille Landry, the daughter of Victor Landry and Rosa Moore. She was the half-sister of Lizzie Miles.

She is believed to have moved north in her mid-teens. In 1910 she is listed as working as a nurse and still living at home, but on 10 June 1912, as Edna Landry, she married vaudeville performer and touring company manager Will Benbow, and performed in his shows, but they separated after a few years.

She was popular in black vaudeville in the American Midwest in the late 1910s and 1920s, 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. Her most frequent accompanist was Fletcher Henderson; some of her recordings featured accompaniment by Porter Grainger and Lemuel Fowler. In 1916, she appeared was in a show called Follow Me at Casino Theater in New York City. She also appeared in Billy King's musical comedy Over the Top, and the musical comedies The New American, A Trip Around the World, and A Derby Day in Dixie, all in The Lafayette Theatre in New York City.

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. She is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth, Illinois. In 2023 The Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Edna Hicks at that location.

Discography

::data[format=table]

Single	Recording date	Recording location	Company
"Bleeding-Hearted Blues"	July 6, 1923	New York City, New York	Gennett Records
"Down-Hearted Blues"	June 18, 1923	New York	Brunswick Records
"Goin' Home"	November 1923	New York	Ajax Records
"Gulf Coast Blues"	June 18, 1923	New York	Brunswick Records
"I'm Goin' Away"	March 21, 1923	New York	Victor Records
"Kansas City Man Blues"	November 1923	New York	Paramount Records
"Kind Lovin' Blues"	November 1923	New York	Ajax Records
"Mistreatin' Daddy"	October 1923	New York	Paramount Records
"No Name Blues"	September 1923	New York	Gennett Records
"Oh Daddy Blues"	August 18, 1923	New York	Gennett Records
"Sad 'n' Lonely Blues"	July 6, 1923	New York	Gennett Records
"Satisfied Blues"	September 1923	New York	Gennett Records
"Save Your Man and Satisfy Your Soul"	October 11, 1923	New York	Columbia Records
"Squawkin' the Blues"	August 24, 1923	New York	Vocalion Records
"Tain't A Doggone Thing But the Blues"	October 1923	New York	Ajax Records
"Tin Roof Blues"	August 18, 1923	New York	Gennett Records
"Uncle Sam Blues"	November 1923	New York	Paramount Records
"Walking and Talking Blues"	August 7, 1923	New York	Vocalion Records
"Wicked Dirty Fives"	August 24, 1923	New York	Vocalion Records
::

References

Bibliography

• Harris, Sheldon (1994). Blues Who's Who (Revised Ed.). New York: Da Capo Press.

References

1. (2013). "Blues - A Regional Experience". Praeger Publishers.
2. Harris, Sheldon. (1979). "Blues Who's Who: A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers". Da Capo Press, Inc..
3. "Central Authentication Service @ Indiana University".
4. "The Dead Rock Stars Club : The 1950s and earlier".
5. [http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/draftcards1.html William Benbow], ''DoctorJazz.co.uk''. Retrieved 8 March 2017
6. "Edna Hicks Perishes in Fire", ''[[Chicago Defender]]'' (national edition), August 22, 1925.
7. Lewis, Uncle Dave. "Biography".
8. "Headstones Placed".
9. (October 7, 2020). "Edna Hicks (1895-1925)".

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