Eleanor Collins
Source: Wikipedia: Eleanor Collins
Music • Historical Archive • 🇨🇦 Canada • 0 views

Eleanor Collins 🇨🇦

Canada's First Lady of Jazz (Known as "Elnora Ruth Proctor")
First Black Television Host in North America, Canada's First Lady of Jazz
Born 21 November 1919 🇨🇦 Edmonton, Canada
Passed Away 3 March 2024 Surrey, Canada
Lifespan 104 years old
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Notice / Correction
"When they gave me the television show, I didn't think about making history; I just wanted to bring good music and warmth into people's homes."

Archival Overview

Pioneering jazz vocalist known as "Canada's First Lady of Jazz" who in 1955 became the first Black person in North America to host a national weekly television variety show.

Biographical Record

Elnora Ruth "Eleanor" Collins was born in Edmonton to Black and Creole homesteaders who arrived in Alberta from Oklahoma in 1910. Moving to Vancouver in 1938, Collins became a sensation on CBC Radio, performing jazz with Ray Norris and Chris Gage.

In 1955, CBC debuted The Eleanor Show, making Collins the very first Black artist in North America to headline and star in her own national weekly television variety series—predating Nat King Cole's NBC show by over a year. Renowned for her silky vocal delivery, elegance, and civic philanthropy, she lived to 104 and was appointed to the Order of Canada.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Mountain View Cemetery
Vancouver, Canada
GPS: 49.2361, -123.0903
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