Mills, Florence, 1895-1927.

Florence Mills (1895-1927), world renowned entertainer during the 1920s, made her stage debut at age 8, billed as "Baby Florence Mills" in the Williams and Walker's production of "Sons of Ham." She went on to perform with the Bonita Company as one of the singing and dancing "pickaninnies," and later with Ada Bricktop Smith and Cora Green, formed the Panama Trio (1910). Mills married fellow performer Ulysses S. Thompson in 1923.

Mills' career took a dramatic turn in 1921 when she replaced Gertrude Saunders as the lead in the hit Broadway show "Shuffle Along." She became a sensation in the production and after a year, went on to star in Lew Leslie's "Plantation Revue" (1922), which was enlarged and renamed "From Dover to Dixie." Following the Broadway run, the production toured London retitled "From Dixie to Broadway," and in 1924 returned to New York. Two years later Mills starred in Leslie's "Blackbirds," which also toured London as well as Paris. On her return to the U.S., her popularity at its peak, Mills became ill and died shortly thereafter of peritonitis. Reportedly five thousand people attended the popular star's funeral at Mother Zion A.M.E. Church in Harlem.

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