Sippie Wallace .... real name Beulah Belle Thomas was born in
Plum Bayou, Arkansas (50 miles South of Little Rock) on November 1, 1898. She
was one of thirteen children born to Fanny and George W. Thomas Sr. When she
was just a child her family moved to Houston, Texas where her father was a
deacon at the Shiloh Baptist Church. In grammar school, Beulah was nicknamed ‘Sippie’
because as she once said, her teeth “were so far apart she had to sip
everything,” and the name stuck with her.
As a
member of a family overflowing with musical talents,
it was at Shiloh that Beulah began to develop her musical abilities, learning to
sing and play the organ as a member of the church choir. On summer nights
though, she and her brothers George Jr. and Hersal, both talented musicians,
would sneak out of their house and follow the ragtime music to the local
travelling tent shows. There they listened to Blues singers and became
acquainted with its style and sound. On one such visit to the tent show, Sippie
was asked to fill an opening in the chorus line. That very night, a star was
born.