Jackie Shane
AP
Jackie Shane was born on May 15th, 1940.
Despite being assigned male at birth, she had an affinity for femininity, and grew out her hair and wore dresses publicly.
She had a unique experience as a Black trans woman in the 40s and 50s: her mother, grandmother, and close family accepted her as a woman.
As a famous singer, she self identified as a man in early interviews and was later often times misgendered and/or referred to as a drag queen.
For 60 years she would refuse to further answer questions that took her updo, makeup, and glittery suits as an invitation to probe into her gender identity or ask her if she was a butch lesbian.
A 2017 interview was the first time she publicly identified as a trans woman.
As a teenager, she joined a band with Louis Lavelle and Les Monday, playing the drums and singing.
She was able to make money as a studio session drummer for R&B artists that would record in Nashville.
When Little Richard moved to Nashville, they became fast friends. She would often even style his wigs.
After witnessing a Black man being violently beaten and then thrown in a garbage dump, she vowed to move out of the Jim Crow South.
Still a teenager, she joined a traveling carnival show before relocating to Montreal and joining Frank Motley and the Motley Crew as their lead singer in 1960.
In 1961, she moved to Toronto and continued playing with the band to sold out crowds on Yonge Street.
She preferred live performances to recording in studios, turning down several record deals.
Her 1962 cover of William Bell’s "Any Other Way” is one of her most popular songs.
She turned down an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show because they made her appearance conditional on her not wearing makeup. She recalled the experience later saying, “His scout came and said: ‘You’re going to have to do this without makeup. “I said: ‘Please stuff it.’ Ed Sullivan looks like something Dr Frankenstein had a hand in. He’s going to tell me what to do?”
Despite hoping for a more peaceful life, she faced transphobic violence and harassment in Canada.
In 1971, at 30 years old she disappeared from the music industry, moving to Pasadena with her partner to live a full life as a woman. She even had IDs made that said her new name, Margaret Anne Daley.
After the relationship ended, she moved back to Nashville to take care of her mother until her mother’s death in 1997.
For three years, Douglas Mcgowan, a scout from the archival record label the Numero Group, tried and eventually succeeded in persuading her to sign a contract allowing his label to reissue her catalogue.
Any Other Way, the two-disc box set was released on October 20th, 2017 and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Historical Album category.
Jackie Shane died in her sleep on February 21st, 2019. She was 78 years old.
The documentary, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story was released on March 9th 2024.
The documentary’s centerpiece are her interviews over the phone with one of the filmmakers, Michael Mabbott.
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