Edith Caldwell

American singer during big band era. Married to Chick Floyd 1937-1942. Born February 16, 1911 Ashville, Alabama Died April 18, 1991. Began singing early in life, doing duets with her sister, Evelyn, and singing on radio station WAPI in Birmingham, Alabama. She went to Howard College, singing with a vocal trio "The Blue Shadows". After winning a singing contest in Birmingham, Alabama, and partaking of the prize of a one-week stay in New York City, she landed a vocal spot with the Ernie Holtz Society Orchestra at the Lexington Hotel. Next she joined the Ted Black Orchestra. With it, she met Charles Marshall "Chick" Floyd, the pianist and arranger of the band. Together they joined Orville Knapp And His Orchestra at the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California in 1934. Edith developed a trick of humming into a Shastock Solotone mute, produced a sound that resembleda high-register trombone and can be heard in such song's as Knapp's "Accent on Youth". Leighton Noble was added to the band as male vocalist in September of 1935, when they toured the East Coast. After losing her voice in 1942, Edith took a job as an assistant manager of a newsreel theater in New York City. Later, she moved back home to take care of her parents.