Results: Trailblazer Eleanor Collins Dies At 104

Canadian jazz legend Eleanor Collins, who began performing in the 1930s and worked with other greats like Dizzy Gillespie and fellow Canadian Oscar Peterson, has died at the age of 104, on March 3. In her lifetime, Collins broke racial and gender barriers, making her mark in history. Are you familiar with Collins?

Dubbed as Canada's first lady of jazz, Collins made her television debut in 1954 on CBC Vancouver's Bamboula: A Day in the West Indies, the first Canadian television show with a mixed-race cast and the first live music TV show broadcast from Vancouver. She later starred in The Eleanor Show, becoming the first woman and first Black artist to headline their own national television series in North America (a national TV series on CBC in 1955, a year before Nat King Cole got his own TV series in the United States). Did you know this?

She received many accolades late in life, including the Order of Canada in 2014 and was honoured on a Canada Post stamp in 2022. The stamp was a tribute to the then 102-year-old music legend's life and career "as an artist, musician and mentor." She combated both racism and extreme poverty to achieve her dream, helping and influencing many younger artists along the way. Do you recall when this stamp was issued in her honour?

She certainly shared her talent with her family --her sister Ruby Sneed became a classical pianist who drew the approval of the opera/spiritual singer Marian Anderson and the youngest sister, Pearl Brown, became an acclaimed jazz and blues singer — and Jimi Hendrix's aunt. However, she was the only one in her family to not die young. Not only that, she lived to 104, and looked and felt decades younger. (The photo of her with her stamp was when she was 102). Do you know anyone who was looking and feeling decades younger than their age?