James Edward Ellington was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15, 1879, and moved with his parents to Washington D.C. in 1886. They were among thousands of blacks who had moved north, away from the rural and semirural towns of the South, between the Civil War and World War I.
At an early age, James played the piano by ear and could sing excerpts from several operas and operettas during family gathering at home.
James Edward Ellington, in addition to his work as a butler, driver, caretaker and handyman for a prominent Washington, D.C. doctor, worked as a part-time butler at the White House on several occasions during the Warren G. Harding administration in the early 1920s.
Sources: Biography.com, Duke Ellington and His World: A Biography By A. H. LAWRENCE(New York: Routledge, 2001)
At an early age, James played the piano by ear and could sing excerpts from several operas and operettas during family gathering at home.
James Edward Ellington, in addition to his work as a butler, driver, caretaker and handyman for a prominent Washington, D.C. doctor, worked as a part-time butler at the White House on several occasions during the Warren G. Harding administration in the early 1920s.
Sources: Biography.com, Duke Ellington and His World: A Biography By A. H. LAWRENCE(New York: Routledge, 2001)
James Edward Ellington was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15, 1879, and moved with his parents to Washington D.C. in 1886. They were among thousands of blacks who had moved north, away from the rural and semirural towns of the South, between the Civil War and World War I.
At an early age, James played the piano by ear and could sing excerpts from several operas and operettas during family gathering at home.
James Edward Ellington, in addition to his work as a butler, driver, caretaker and handyman for a prominent Washington, D.C. doctor, worked as a part-time butler at the White House on several occasions during the Warren G. Harding administration in the early 1920s.
Sources: Biography.com, Duke Ellington and His World: A Biography By A. H. LAWRENCE(New York: Routledge, 2001)
At an early age, James played the piano by ear and could sing excerpts from several operas and operettas during family gathering at home.
James Edward Ellington, in addition to his work as a butler, driver, caretaker and handyman for a prominent Washington, D.C. doctor, worked as a part-time butler at the White House on several occasions during the Warren G. Harding administration in the early 1920s.
Sources: Biography.com, Duke Ellington and His World: A Biography By A. H. LAWRENCE(New York: Routledge, 2001)
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