Ella Fitzgerald was an influential jazz singer known as "The First Lady of Song" who was born in 1917 in Virginia and moved to New York as a child. She began her singing career in 1934 performing with bandleader Chick Webb's orchestra and went on to win 13 Grammys and sell over 40 million albums, establishing herself as one of the most popular jazz singers before her death in 1996 at age 79.