August 14, 2010 Abbey Lincoln, jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress, died.

Abbey Lincoln was born Anna Marie Wooldridge on August 6, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. She moved to California in 1951 to perform in nightclubs. In 1956, she began her recording career with “Abbey Lincoln’s Affair: A Story of a Girl in Love.” Other recordings by Lincoln include “Abbey is Blue” (1959), “People in Me” (1973), “Devils Got Your Tongue” (1992), and “Abbey Sings Abbey” (2007).

In 1960, Lincoln sang on the landmark jazz civil rights recording “We Insist! – Freedom Now Suite” by Max Roach. Lincoln appeared in several films, including “The Girl Can’t Help It” (1956), “Nothing But a Man” (1964), “For Love of Ivy” (1968), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, and “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990). In 2003, Lincoln was honored with the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, the highest honor the nation bestows on a jazz artist.

The Public Broadcasting System aired a documentary of Lincoln’s life, “You Gotta Pay the Band: The Words, the Music, and the Life of Abbey Lincoln,” in 1992.