SIMON: Billie Holiday was just 44 years old when her heart and liver failed after years of drug and alcohol use. Thousands of people went to her funeral. A few years ago, we sent NPR's Elizabeth ...

When Billie Holiday died in 1959, thousands of mourners attended her funeral at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in New York City. The overflow crowd lined the sidewalks. Honorary ...

“Billie Holiday is one of the great fashion icons ... role as a fashion influencer that when she died, coverage of her funeral invariably included a description of her burial outfit: a ...

Billie Holiday, 44, Negro blues singer ... of “Gloomy Sunday” at the designer Alexander McQueen’s 2010 funeral.) Over the years, the roughness of her voice has imparted a sense of ...

Fifty years ago, on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday died an untimely death at age 44 in a New York hospital from complications of drug and alcohol dependency. Now, half a century after her passing, it ...

The composition was, of course, a tribute to Billie Holiday, featuring fragments (sometimes more) of songs associated with her--”The Man I Love,” “Lover Man,” “Yesterdays,” “God ...

When she died in a hospital right here in New York on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday was under police guard as she began her last journey, traveling all alone. It was more than the conclusion of a ...