#tiny davis

Happy birthday, Ernestine Carroll "Tiny" Davis!

Tiny Davis (Ernestine Carroll) (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: Born 1910

RIP: 30 January 1994

Ethnicity: African American

Born on this day in 1909, Ernestine Davis was a popular jazz singer and trumpeter of the LGBT music scene. Nicknamed “Tiny,” she gained fame with The International Sweethearts of Rhythm which was the very first fully-integrated, all-female big band in the United States. 

Tiny was often called “the female Louis Armstrong” (x).

Tiny was born on August 5, 1909 in Memphis, Tennessee. She was her parents’ youngest child out of seven and grew up with 4 older sisters and 2 older brothers. She attended Booker T. Washington High School and it was there where Tiny first picked up a trumpet and discovered her natural musical abilities. When the family moved to Kansas City in 1935, Tiny joined a band called the Harlem-Play Girls but she was forced to leave the group a year later with the birth of her first child from her marriage to Clarence Davis.

In 1941, The International Sweethearts of Rhythm jazz band severed its ties with the Piney Woods Country Life School of Mississippi which had founded the band back in 1937. Now based in Virginia and free of all financial responsibilities to Piney Woods, the 16-piece band began recruiting new members. Tiny was one of three musicians who the band picked up for this new era and during her 7 years with The International Sweethearts, Tiny toured all across the United States, performed at The Apollo for celebrity musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Eddie Durham, and took part in a USO tour during World War II.

Tiny performs “How ‘Bout That Jive?” with The International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

In 1947, Tiny left The International Sweethearts and started her own band called The Prairie Co-Eds, which was later renamed to The Hell Divers. Her new band enjoyed a successful career of touring throughout the Caribbean and Central America and recording for Decca Records before disbanding in 1952. From the mid-1950s until their deaths, Tiny and her partner Ruby Lucas – who was also a musician and was the bassist for The Hell Divers – operated a club in Chicago called Tiny & Ruby’s Gay Spot. Tiny regularly performed at the club well into her old age and passed away on January 30, 1994. You can learn more about Tiny in the 1988 documentary dedicated to her over 40-year long relationship with Ruby titled Tiny & Ruby: Hell Divin' Women!