Lizzie Douglas was born in 1897 in Tunica County, Mississippi, although she claimed she was born in New Orleans. She was married three times but no marriage certificate has been found. She was reported to have live with a man named ‘The squirrel’. All in all a lot of things we don’t know about her. What we do know is that she didn’t like the name Lizzie, chose a stage name Memphis Minnie and grew to be the most popular female country blues singer that ever lived.
She was popular in the Thirties, but her music lived on to the blues revival of the Sixties, and she had a lot of influence on later singers. Versions of her famous songs were covered by Jefferson Airplane (Me and my chauffeur blues), Donovan (Can I do it for you) and Led Zeppelin (When the levee breaks).