Baby Dee was born Delores Spriggs on August 1, 1927, in Washington, DC. She grew up in a family of entertainers - her mother Ernestine Boggerson Spriggs was a performer and her father Daniel Spriggs was a comedian. Baby Dee attended Randall Junior High in Southwest D.C., which is one of the schools that a number of artists featured in our exhibit attended.
Baby Dee lived in the New York City area in the late 1940s, performing at venues such as the Ebony Club in Brooklyn and the Savannah Club in Manhattan. As a performer, she was known for her sensual, dramatic delivery which even included shedding tears. In 1946, she recorded in New York for De Lux and Apollo with the Bill Campbell Orchestra. The following year, she had a recording session in New York for the Chicago-based Sonora Records, which produced the singles: "Like He Never Lived Before"; "It Feels So Doggone Good"; and "If You Gotta Go" with "There Goes the Last Man I'll Ever Lose."
