Editing Ethel Waters (section)

==Personal life==
Her first autobiography, ''His Eye Is on the Sparrow'', (1951), written with [[Charles Samuels]], was adapted for the stage by Larry Parr and premiered on October 7, 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/his-eye-is-on-the-sparrow-musical-bio-of-ethel-waters-premieres-in-florida-oct-7-com-128509|title=His Eye is on the Sparrow, Musical Bio of Ethel Waters, Premieres in Florida Oct. 7|last=Jones|first=Kenneth|date=October 7, 2005|website=Playbill|access-date=January 2, 2020|archive-date=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102050419/http://www.playbill.com/article/his-eye-is-on-the-sparrow-musical-bio-of-ethel-waters-premieres-in-florida-oct-7-com-128509|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1953, she appeared in a Broadway show, ''At Home With Ethel Waters'' that opened on September 22, 1953, and closed October 10 after 23 performances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/production/at-home-with-ethel-waters-48th-street-theatre-vault-0000000250|title=At Home with Ethel Waters Broadway|website=Playbill|access-date=January 2, 2020|archive-date=December 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219181211/http://www.playbill.com/production/at-home-with-ethel-waters-48th-street-theatre-vault-0000000250|url-status=live}}</ref>

Waters married three times and had no children. When she was 13, she married Merritt "Buddy" Purnsley in 1909; they divorced in 1913.<ref name="LEA">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/voicesofjoyvoice0000dobr |url-access=registration|quote=ethel waters husband.|title=Voices of joy, Voices of Freedom: Ethel Waters, Sammy Davis, Jr., Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Lena Horne |first=Arnold |last=Dobrin |date=July 10, 1972|publisher=Coward, McCann & Geoghegan|access-date=July 10, 2018|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> She married Clyde Edwards Matthews in 1929, and they divorced in 1933.<ref name="Gog" /> She married Edward Mallory<ref name="Boo" /> in 1938; they divorced in 1945.<ref name="Gog" /> Waters was the great-aunt of the singer-songwriter [[Crystal Waters]].<ref name="VIC" /> Waters may have also been married briefly to Earl Dancer in 1927.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 24, 1927|title="Flo Mills" Club Organized, The Black Dispatch, p. 6|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/872015418/|access-date=October 6, 2023|website=newspapers.com|language=en-US|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107145506/https://www.newspapers.com/image/872015418/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=June 1, 1925|title="New York, U.S., State Census, 1925|url=https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/6865741?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a227668734d5832594d4f656a4545534939576c66526d374276356f4a72494e6f37736f4c6f5833356d39466f3d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d|access-date=October 6, 2023|website=ancestry.com|language=en-US|archive-date=January 7, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107145512/https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/6865741?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a227668734d5832594d4f656a4545534939576c66526d374276356f4a72494e6f37736f4c6f5833356d39466f3d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to the [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]], Waters identified as [[Bisexuality|bisexual]] early in her career, though she never spoke publicly about her sexuality, and had a large gay and lesbian following that included photographer [[Carl Van Vechten]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |title=Ethel Waters |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/ethel-waters |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=[[National Museum of African American History and Culture]] |language=en}}</ref> During the early 1920s, she reportedly lived in Harlem with dancer Ethel Williams, identified by several historical retrospectives as her romantic partner.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-06-12 |title=As an African American, LGBTQ+ Woman, Ethel Waters Shaped U.S. Entertainment |url=https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/african-american-lgbtq-woman-ethel-waters-shaped-us-entertainment |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=[[Smithsonian American Women's History Museum]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Derrick Bryson |last2=Reinhard |first2=Scott |date=2024-10-09 |title=When Harlem Was 'as Gay as It Was Black' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/realestate/harlem-renaissance-lgbtq.html |access-date=2024-10-10 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Woolner |first=Cookie |title="Have We a New Sex Problem Here?" Black Queer Women in the Early Great Migration |url=https://www.oah.org/process/woolner-black-queer-women/ |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=[[Organization of American Historians]]}}</ref> This residence has been documented by the [[NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project]], who write that Waters was "well known in Harlem's lesbian circles" and that she and Williams were known to lesbian activist [[Mabel Hampton]] as "the two Ethels".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethel Waters Residence |url=https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/ethel-waters-residence/ |access-date=2024-10-10 |website=[[NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project]]}}</ref> Singer [[Elisabeth Welch]] gave a similar account to British lesbian magazine [[Diva (magazine)|''Diva'']] in 1997.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aldrich |first1=Robert |author-link=Robert Aldrich (historian) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLWTqBmifh0C&dq=ethel+waters+lgbt&pg=PA558 |title=Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II |last2=Wotherspoon |first2=Garry |date=2002 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis|Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-415-15983-8 |page=558 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1938, Waters met artist [[Luigi Lucioni]] through their mutual friend, [[Carl Van Vechten]]. Lucioni asked Waters if he could paint her portrait, and a sitting was arranged at his studio at 64 Washington Square South. Waters bought the finished portrait from Lucioni in 1939 for $500. She was at the height of her career and the first African American to have a starring role on Broadway. In her portrait, she wore a tailored red dress with a mink coat draped over the back of her chair. Lucioni positioned Waters with her arms tightly wrapped around her waist, a gesture that conveyed vulnerability, as if she were trying to protect herself. The painting was considered lost because it had not been seen in public since 1942. [[Huntsville Museum of Art|Huntsville (Alabama) Museum of Art]] Executive Director Christopher J. Madkour and historian Stuart Embury traced it to a private residence. The owner considered Waters to be "an adopted grandmother"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://whnt.com/2018/02/01/huntsville-museum-of-art-celebrates-black-history-month-with-highly-sought-after-portrait-of-ethel-waters/|title=Huntsville Museum of Art celebrates Black History Month with newly acquired portrait of Ethel Waters|date=February 2, 2018|website=WHNT.com|language=en|access-date=January 2, 2020|archive-date=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102050419/https://whnt.com/2018/02/01/huntsville-museum-of-art-celebrates-black-history-month-with-highly-sought-after-portrait-of-ethel-waters/|url-status=live}}</ref> but she allowed the Huntsville Museum of Art to display ''Portrait of Ethel Waters'' in the 2016 exhibition ''American Romantic: The Art of Luigi Lucioni'' where it was viewed by the public for the first time in more than 70 years. The museum acquired ''Portrait of Ethel Waters'' in 2017, and it was shown in an exhibition in February 2018.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Art and Soul - Luigi Lucioni and Ethel Waters: A Friendship|last=Embury|first=Dr. Stuart|publisher=Huntsville Museum of Art |year=2018 |location=Huntsville, Alabama |pages=3, 22}}</ref>

A turning point came in 1957 when she attended the [[New York Crusade (1957)|Billy Graham Crusade]] in Madison Square Garden. Years later, she gave this testimony of that night: "In 1957, I, Ethel Waters, a 380-pound decrepit old lady, rededicated my life to Jesus Christ, and boy, because He lives, just look at me now. I tell you because He lives; and because my precious child, Billy, gave me the opportunity to stand there, I can thank God for the chance to tell you His eye is on all of us sparrows."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://christianindex.org/ethel-waters-sparrow-soared/ |title=Ethel Waters: The Sparrow that Soared |last=Hale |first=Ron F. |date=May 2, 2016 |publisher=Christian Index |access-date=July 21, 2019 |archive-date=July 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190721211550/https://christianindex.org/ethel-waters-sparrow-soared/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Ethel Waters: I Touched a Sparrow |url=https://archive.org/details/ethelwatersitouc00knaa |url-access=registration |last=Knaack |first=Twila |publisher=Word Books |year=1978 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ethelwatersitouc00knaa/page/41 41]|isbn=978-0849900846 }}</ref> In her later years, Waters often toured with the preacher [[Billy Graham]] on his crusades.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EismAAAAIBAJ&pg=2435,2042319 |title=Ethel Waters Remembered |author=White, Alvin E. |date=November 19, 1977 |newspaper=The Afro American |access-date=November 16, 2010 |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107145508/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EismAAAAIBAJ&pg=2435,2042319 |url-status=live }}</ref> She was a baptized [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and considered herself a member of that religion throughout her life.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-05-20 |title=Of Many Things |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/373/many-things/many-things |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=America Magazine |language=en |archive-date=September 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220905132025/https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/373/many-things/many-things |url-status=live }}</ref>

Waters died on September 1, 1977, aged 80, from [[uterine cancer]], [[kidney failure]], and other ailments, in Chatsworth, California.<ref name="Bogle">{{cite book |last1=Bogle |first1=Donald |title=Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061241741 |url-access=registration |date=2011 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York|isbn=978-0061241741 }}</ref> She is buried at [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)]].<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'' (3d ed.). McFarland & Company. Kindle edition. Kindle location 49813.</ref> Waters had given a collection of her papers, recordings, and personal effects to her friend Joan Croomes, which were later placed at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] where they are now available for research.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Harry Ransom Center Digitizes Rare Script of In Dahomey and Photographs from Early Life of Ethel Waters, Pioneering African American Performer |url=https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2024/harry-ransom-center-digitizes-rare-script-and-photographs-from-early-life-of-ethel-waters.html |access-date=2024-12-11 |website=www.hrc.utexas.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Michael |date=December 11, 2024 |title=UT Ransom Center new home for archives of singer Ethel Waters, pioneering Black star |url=https://www.statesman.com/story/news/history/2024/12/11/ethel-waters-pioneer-ut-austin-ransom-center-university-texas-archives-recordings-photographs-papers/76868834007/ |access-date=December 11, 2024 |work=Austin American-Statesman}}</ref>

''Ethel'' was written and performed by Terry Burrell as a one-woman tribute to Waters. It ran as a limited engagement in February and March 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/terry-burrell-is-ethel-waters-in-world-premiere-musical-ethel-opening-feb-23-at-walnut-street-com-187722|title=Terry Burrell Is Ethel Waters in World-Premiere Musical Ethel!, Opening Feb. 23 at Walnut Street|last=Gioia|first=Michael|date=February 23, 2012|website=Playbill|language=en|access-date=January 2, 2020|archive-date=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102050418/http://www.playbill.com/article/terry-burrell-is-ethel-waters-in-world-premiere-musical-ethel-opening-feb-23-at-walnut-street-com-187722|url-status=live}}</ref>