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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Ida B. Wells
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Authors & Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Ruth Handler
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Ruth Wakefield
    • Madam C J Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, World Leaders, & Warriors
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Scientists & Mathematicians
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Doctors, Nurses, & Medical Researchers
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Rosalyn Yalow
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    • Mary Anning
    • Marie d'Arconville
    • Hertha Ayrton
    • Florence Bascom
    • Laura Bassi
    • Katharine Burr Blodgett
    • Annie Jump Cannon
    • Rachel Carson
    • Emilie du Chatelet
    • Martha Coston
    • Marie Curie
    • Sylvia Earle
    • Dian Fossey
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Lillian Gilbreth
    • Jane Goodall
    • Catharine Littlefield Greene
    • Mary Jackson
    • Shirley Ann Jackson
    • Margaret E. Knight
    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
    • Mary Leakey
    • Wangari Maathai
    • Lise Meitner
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
    • Ellen Ochoa
    • Sally Ride
    • Stephanie Schwabe
    • Donna Shirley
    • Kathryn Sullivan
    • Wang Zhenyi
    • Peggy Whitson
    • Wu Chien-Shiung
  • Exploration & Sports
    • Nicola Adams
    • Laila Ali
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Simone Biles
    • Bonnie Blair
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Nadia Comaneci
    • Dominique Dawes
    • Anita DeFrantz
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Gertrude Ederle
    • Althea Gibson
    • Mia Hamm
    • Sonja Henie
    • Amy Johnson
    • Florence Griffith Joyner
    • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
    • Billie Jean King
    • Katie Ledecky
    • Lisa Leslie
    • Nancy Lieberman
    • Ellen MacArthur
    • Cheryl Miller
    • Jackie Mitchell
    • Martina Navratilova
    • Annie Smith Peck
    • Wilma Rudolph
    • Sacagawea
    • Annika Sorenstam
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Pat Summitt
    • Sheryl Swoopes
    • Valentina Tereshkova
    • Dara Torres
    • Lindsey Vonn
    • Serena Williams
    • Venus Williams
    • Lynette Woodard
    • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
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    • Ma Rainey
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    • Sister Rosetta Tharpe
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe

March 20, 1915 - October 9, 1973
(Cotton Plant, AR - Philadelphia, PA)
  • FIRST commercially successful gospel singer
  • Born Rosetta Nubin, she was a musical prodigy, who was playing guitar and singing on stage by age four
  • Her mother was a musician and preacher, and at six years old Tharpe was traveling and performing with her mother's group
  • In 1938, Tharpe got a record deal with Decca Records and released an album of gospel songs that was an instant success
  • Blended elements of blues, jazz, gospel, and folk music to develop her own unique style that defied categorization
  • Some protested her music, declaring it profane to perform gospel music outside of church -- others were shocked to see a woman playing guitar
  • Over her career, Tharpe performed at Carnegie Hall, and worked with some of the best musicians of the day, including blues legend Muddy Waters, Cab Calloway, and Benny Goodman
  • One of the earliest adopters of electric guitar, she is often credited as the true CREATOR of rock and roll
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Bibliography: Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.

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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Ida B. Wells
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Authors & Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Ruth Handler
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Ruth Wakefield
    • Madam C J Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, World Leaders, & Warriors
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Scientists & Mathematicians
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Doctors, Nurses, & Medical Researchers
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • Mary Anning
    • Marie d'Arconville
    • Hertha Ayrton
    • Florence Bascom
    • Laura Bassi
    • Katharine Burr Blodgett
    • Annie Jump Cannon
    • Rachel Carson
    • Emilie du Chatelet
    • Martha Coston
    • Marie Curie
    • Sylvia Earle
    • Dian Fossey
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Lillian Gilbreth
    • Jane Goodall
    • Catharine Littlefield Greene
    • Mary Jackson
    • Shirley Ann Jackson
    • Margaret E. Knight
    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
    • Mary Leakey
    • Wangari Maathai
    • Lise Meitner
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
    • Ellen Ochoa
    • Sally Ride
    • Stephanie Schwabe
    • Donna Shirley
    • Kathryn Sullivan
    • Wang Zhenyi
    • Peggy Whitson
    • Wu Chien-Shiung
  • Exploration & Sports
    • Nicola Adams
    • Laila Ali
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Simone Biles
    • Bonnie Blair
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Nadia Comaneci
    • Dominique Dawes
    • Anita DeFrantz
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Gertrude Ederle
    • Althea Gibson
    • Mia Hamm
    • Sonja Henie
    • Amy Johnson
    • Florence Griffith Joyner
    • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
    • Billie Jean King
    • Katie Ledecky
    • Lisa Leslie
    • Nancy Lieberman
    • Ellen MacArthur
    • Cheryl Miller
    • Jackie Mitchell
    • Martina Navratilova
    • Annie Smith Peck
    • Wilma Rudolph
    • Sacagawea
    • Annika Sorenstam
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Pat Summitt
    • Sheryl Swoopes
    • Valentina Tereshkova
    • Dara Torres
    • Lindsey Vonn
    • Serena Williams
    • Venus Williams
    • Lynette Woodard
    • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Sister Rosetta Tharpe
  • Picture Book Biographies
  • Bulletin Board
  • About the Library
  • Contact