Editing Dinah Washington (section)

==Early life==
Ruth Lee Jones was born in [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama]], to Alice and Ollie Jones,<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/10/01/alice-jones-87-was-music-director-for-illinois-baptists/ |title=Alice Jones, 87 |newspaper= Chicago Tribune |access-date=December 20, 2016}}</ref> and moved to Chicago as a child. She became deeply involved in [[gospel music]] and played piano for the choir in St. Luke's Baptist Church while still in elementary school. She sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and was a member of the Sallie Martin Gospel Singers.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/dinah-wasand-wasnt/Content?oid=901004 |title=Dinah Was...and Wasn't |last=Joravsky |first=Ben |work= Chicago Reader |date= December 16, 1999|access-date=December 20, 2016 }}</ref> When she joined the Sallie Martin group, she dropped out of [[Wendell Phillips Academy High School|Wendell Phillips High School]]. She sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by [[Sallie Martin]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| last1= Bogdanov | first1= Vladimir | first2= Chris |last2= Woodstra| first3= Stephen Thomas |last3= Erlewine| title= Sallie Martin| encyclopedia= All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues| year= 2003 | page= 373| publisher= Backbeat Books |isbn= 0-87930-736-6}}</ref> who was co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. Her involvement with the gospel choir occurred after she won an amateur contest at Chicago's [[Regal Theater, Chicago|Regal Theater]] where she sang "I Can't Face the Music".<ref name="Nadine Cohodas 2004">{{cite book| first= Nadine |last= Cohodas| title= Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington| publisher= Random House| year= 2004 |isbn= 978-0375421488}}</ref>