National

She sold more than 40 million albums, won 13 Grammy awards, and was dubbed the “First Lady of Song.” But today, Ella Fitzgerald was honored for a different reason – the U.S. Post Office has commissioned a 39-cent stamp of the influential jazz singer.

 

Less than a mile from where she first got her break at the Apollo Theater, she was honored in a Harlem ceremony, as part of a series of unveilings that will take place across the country. The official unveiling took place last month at Lincoln Center, and Fitzgerald marks the 30th induction into the Post Office’s Black Heritage Stamp Series.

 

“We’re honored to be able to honor Ella Fitzgerald who was a great jazz singer,” said Joan Valazquez, a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service.

 

Valazquez helped unveil the new stamp – a portrait of Fitzgerald looking to her right, highlighted in dark blue and red with gold highlights in her hair. At the top of the stamp, it reads in dark blue, “Black Heritage.”  The ceremony was held at the Nubian Heritage House in Harlem, where African art peppered the upstairs walls, and a collection of jazz musicians performed prior to and after the unveiling.  

 

It was at the Apollo Theater where Fitzgerald got her first break at 16, and in a statement theater officials called her “an ambassador not only of music but of American culture,” and said, “We are very proud to be associated with such a great American icon.”

 

Phoebe Jacobs knew Ella Fitzgerald for almost 40 years, first meeting her while answering telephones at a nightclub where she frequently performed. According to Jacobs, Fitzgerald was a “very private lady,” and it was only after 10 years, that Fitzgerald asked her out for coffee; they remained close friends until she died in 1996.

 

After Fitzgerald confided that she never had a birthday party, Jacobs threw her a surprise celebration for her 42nd birthday, and invited her favorite Yankee, Mickey Mantle – something which, Jacobs said, Fitzgerald thought was the “best thing ever.”

 

“I admired her, I loved her,” Jacobs said. “What made Ella Fitzgerald so special is Ella had a passion to perform and make people happy.”

 

The two often shopped and went out together. On one occasion, after staying over her house, Fitzgerald suggested the two go out for breakfast, and they got into her Rolls Royce. Instead of going somewhere fancy, Fitzgerald asked the driver to take them to McDonald’s because she liked their Egg McMuffins, and they sat in the car and ate breakfast together.

 

Jennifer Sanon, 21, sang a tribute to Fitzgerald at the Harlem ceremony, beautifully covering such hits as “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” Though Sanon has been singing her whole life, she only recently started singing jazz three years ago around the time she first heard of Ella Fitzgerald from a friend who told her she had a similar voice.

 

“I had to find out who she was,” Sanon said.

 

Her friend gave her a copy of Ella & Louis, a duet by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, which she studied.

“She’s a musician, not just a singer,” Sanon said of Fitzgerald. “You can ask any musician, there’s a difference between a musician and a singer. She can sing without the band.”

 

“I think we had a kindred spirit,” she said. “There are not a lot of young people keeping this alive.”

 

Loren Schoenburg, executive director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem has played the piano for more than 30 years, and performed not just at the ceremony but also on stage with Fitzgerald at a sold out concert at Radio City Music Hall.

 

“It was a great thrill,” Schoenburg said. “Although it was late in her career, she still had that innate charisma.”

 

But it was her humility that most impressed him

 

“She didn’t act like a star or a diva. She acted like one of the musicians and it helped me understand why the musicians loved her so much.”

 

He said the thought of her still makes him and others smile. “And what better legacy is there than that?”