ALBERTA HUNTER, American singer, born (d. 1984); an American blues singer, songwriter and nurse. Her career had started back in the early 1920s, and from there on, she became a successful jazz and blues recording artist, being critically acclaimed to the ranks of Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith.

In the 1950s, she retired from performing and entered the medical field, only to successfully resume her singing career in her eighties. Though married, Hunter was a Lesbian who had relationships with Lottie Tyler (Bert Williams’ niece) and kept company with well known bisexuals in the Harlem community, including Ethel Waters and her lover of many years, Ethel Williams. Alberta Hunter’s life is documented in Alberta Hunter: My Castle’s Rockin’ (1998), a documentary by Stuart Goldman Productions, and in Cookin’ at the Cookery, a biographical musical by Marion J. Caffey that has toured the United States in recent years.