Anna Mae Winburn

Anna Mae Winburn, née Darden (August 13, 1913 - September 30, 1999) was an African American vocalist and jazz bandleader who flourished beginning in the mid 1930s. She is best known for having directed the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an all-female big band that was perhaps one of the few — and one of the most — racially integrated dance-bands of the swing era. Anna Mae Winburn was born to a musical family in Port Royal, Tennessee, and migrated to Indianapolis, Indiana, at a young age. Her mother's maiden name was "Cornell." She, with two of her sisters, came west from Kokomo, Indiana. Anna Mae Winburn and her then husband, James Rose, had a son: Anna Mae's marriage and children Anna Mae married Eustace "Duke" Pilgrim (b. 1921...