📍805 5th Avenue, Columbus, GA 31901, USA
1935 – 1939“In 1935, after more than thirty years on the road, I came home to Columbus, Georgia, to retire, to the house at 805 Fifth Avenue, a two-storey house I had built and expanded for my mother, Ella, so the whole family could come and visit. I was born Gertrude Pridgett, and I grew up in Columbus, singing in church and in a talent show at the Springer Opera House, just a couple of blocks from this house, when I was about fourteen. That was the start of everything. I travelled the South for years with my husband, Will Rainey, in tent shows and minstrel shows, singing the blues before most people had heard of it, and they called me the Mother of the Blues. I recorded more than ninety songs for Paramount in the 1920s, like See See Rider and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, with musicians including Louis Armstrong. I wore gold necklaces, diamonds and feathers, and my voice could fill a tent. But by the 1930s the Depression and changing tastes had brought my career to an end, and I was ready to come home. In Columbus I joined the choir of Friendship Baptist Church and became active in the community, and I ran two theatres in Rome, Georgia, for a while. When fans came by the house and asked me to sing, I would only sing gospel songs and hymns. I lived here until 1939. Today my house is the Ma Rainey House and Blues Museum, restored by the city and opened in 2007, so visitors can learn about the woman from Columbus who gave the world the blues.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today