People, Locations, Episodes

Fri, 02.26.1869

Sissieretta Jones, Opera Singer born

*The birth of Sissieretta Jones is remembered on this date in 1869. She was a Black concert and spiritual singer.

She was born Matilda S. Joyner in Portsmouth, Virginia, the daughter of a Baptist minister, Jeremiah Joyner, and Henrietta Joyner.  She inherited her enchanting soprano voice from her parents. When she was 7, the family moved to Providence for better educational and economic opportunities.  At 14, she began her first formal music training at the Providence Academy of Music and music schools in Boston. The same year, she married David Richard Jones, "a gambling man" who went on to manage his wife's career and lavishly spend their money until the couple divorced in 1900.

In 1892, at 23, Jones sang in New York's Madison Square Garden. A newspaper review of the performance compared her to famous Italian opera singer Adelina Patti, and it condescendingly tagged Jones as "the Black Patti," a nickname she disliked but could not remove from her public.   She sang at the Chicago World Fair in 1893 and for several Presidents of the United States.

From 1895 to 1916, Jones led a troupe of singers and musicians on a tour through the United States and abroad. Called the Black Patti Troubadours, the group performed minstrel shows and musical skits. While Jones initially considered the minstrel performances demeaning, she was able to expand her repertoire by singing spirituals and opera arias for her show's finale.

The show served as a training ground for hundreds of Black entertainers. Jones was given many gifts from admirers, among them, a medal from President Hector Hippolyte of Haiti, a bar of diamonds and emeralds from the citizens of St. Thomas, an emerald shamrock from the Irish people of Providence, and a diamond tiara from the governor-general, of a West Indies island. She often wore her 17 medals across her chest during performances.

After touring for about 20 years, the Troubadours disbanded, and Jones returned to her home in Providence to care for her ailing mother and grandmother.  She retired in 1916.  She lived the next 18 years at her home on Wheaton Street, taking in homeless children and selling mementos from her glory days to pay her living expenses.   Jones died of cancer in June 1933 in Rhode Island Hospital. She was buried in Grace Church Cemetery.

To be an Artist