Billy Tipton

Billy Lee Tipton (December 29, 1914 – January 21, 1989) was an American jazz musician and bandleader. Born Dorothy Lucille Tipton, he is also notable for the discovery, after his death, that he was female assigned at birth. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Tipton grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was raised by an aunt after his parents' divorce, after which he rarely saw his father, G.W. Tipton, a pilot who sometimes took him for airplane rides. As a high school student, he went by the nickname Tippy and became interested in music, especially jazz. He studied piano and saxophone. He returned to Oklahoma for his final year of high school and joined the school band there. As Tipton began a more serious music career, he adopted...