Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 ? December 22, 1939), was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues. She did much to develop and popularize the form and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith, and their careers. Career Rainey was born in Columbus, Georgia.[LINK: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&GRid=2477&PIgrid=2477&PIcrid=36417&PIpi=82955&] Find a Grave: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey She first appeared on stage in Columbus in "A Bunch of Blackberries" at fourteen. She then joined a traveling vaudeville troupe, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. After hearing a blues song at a theater in St. Louis, Missouri sung by a local girl in 1902, she started performing in a blues sty