Editing Ella Fitzgerald (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Ella Fitzgerald (1960) by Erling Mandelmann.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=Fitzgerald is sitting down on a chair inside a home. She is wearing a casual dress and leaning over.|Fitzgerald in 1960 by [[Erling Mandelmann]]]]

Fitzgerald married at least twice, and there is evidence that suggests that she may have married a third time. Her first marriage was in 1941, to Benny Kornegay, a convicted drug dealer and local dockworker. The marriage was [[annulment|annulled]] in 1942.{{sfn|Nicholson|2004|pp=67–68}} Her second marriage was in December 1947, to the famous [[double bass|bass]] player [[Ray Brown (musician)|Ray Brown]], whom she had met while on tour with [[Dizzy Gillespie]]'s band a year earlier. Together they adopted a child born to Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances, whom they christened [[Ray Brown Jr.]] With Fitzgerald and Brown often busy touring and recording, the child was largely raised by his mother's aunt, Virginia. Fitzgerald and Brown divorced in 1953, due to the various career pressures both were experiencing at the time, though they would continue to perform together.<ref name="nyobit" />

In July 1957, [[Reuters]] reported that Fitzgerald had secretly married Thor Einar Larsen, a young Norwegian, in [[Oslo]]. She had even gone as far as furnishing an apartment in Oslo, but the affair was quickly forgotten when Larsen was sentenced to five months' hard labor in Sweden for stealing money from a young woman to whom he had previously been engaged.{{sfn |Nicholson |2004 |pp=173–175}}

Fitzgerald was notoriously shy. [[Trumpet]] player [[Mario Bauzá]], who played behind Fitzgerald in her early years with [[Chick Webb]], remembered that "she didn't hang out much. When she got into the band, she was dedicated to her music...She was a lonely girl around New York, just kept herself to herself, for the gig."<ref name="Nicholson" /> When, later in her career, the [[Society of Singers]] named an award after her, Fitzgerald explained, "I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I always do but I think I do better when I sing."<ref name="cnn" />

From 1949 to 1956, Fitzgerald resided in the [[St. Albans, Queens|St. Albans]] neighborhood of [[Queens, New York]], an enclave of prosperous African Americans where she counted among her neighbors [[Illinois Jacquet]], [[Count Basie]], [[Lena Horne]], and other jazz luminaries.<ref>[http://prrac.org/newsletters/janfebmar2017.pdf "This Green and Pleasant Land"] by Bryan Greene, in Poverty and Race, p. 3.</ref>

Fitzgerald was a civil rights activist. She was awarded the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 7, 2017 |title=Awards |url=http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/awards |access-date=October 10, 2017 |work=Ella Fitzgerald}}</ref> In 1949, [[Norman Granz]] recruited Fitzgerald for the [[Jazz at the Philharmonic]] tour.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hershorn |first=Tad |title=Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice |date=2011 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-26782-4}}</ref> The Jazz at the Philharmonic tour would specifically target segregated venues. Granz required promoters to ensure that there was no "colored" or "white" seating. He ensured Fitzgerald was to receive equal pay and accommodations regardless of her sex and race. If the conditions were not met shows were cancelled.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Perea |first=Jessica |date=November 26, 2013 |title=Fitzgerald, Ella |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002275792 |publisher=Grove Music Online (Oxford Music Online)}}</ref>

Bill Reed, author of ''Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers'', referred to Fitzgerald as the "Civil Rights Crusader", facing discrimination throughout her career.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bill |first=Reed |title=Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers, 1890–1960. |publisher=McFarland & Co. |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7864-5726-7}}</ref> In 1954 on her way to one of her concerts in Australia she was unable to board the Pan American flight because of racial discrimination.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 15, 2016 |title=Post Civil War: Freedmen and Civil Rights |url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/segregation-public-facilities.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155409/https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/segregation-public-facilities.html |archive-date=October 10, 2017 |access-date=October 10, 2017 |work=National Archives |language=en}}</ref> Although she faced several obstacles and racial barriers, she was recognized as a "cultural ambassador", receiving the [[National Medal of Arts]] in 1987 and America's highest non-military honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bush |first=George |date=December 11, 1992 |title=Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medals of Freedom {{!}} The American Presidency Project |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-presenting-the-presidential-medals-freedom |access-date=June 22, 2020 |website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu}}</ref>

In 1993, Fitzgerald established the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation focusing on charitable grants for four major categories: academic opportunities for children, music education, basic care needs for the less fortunate, medical research revolving around diabetes, heart disease, and vision impairment.<ref>"The Foundation." ''Ella Fitzgerald'', Universal Music Enterprises, www.ellafitzgerald.com/foundation.</ref> Her goals were to give back and provide opportunities for those "at risk" and less fortunate. In addition, she supported several nonprofit organizations like the [[American Heart Association]], City of Hope, and the [[Retina Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=John S. |date=February 11, 1990 |title=A Tribute to Fitzgerald With Heart and Soul |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/12/arts/a-tribute-to-fitzgerald-with-heart-and-soul.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>Easterling, Michael. "Celebrating 100 Years of Song", ''Breakthroughs'', City of Hope, April 24, 2017, www.cityofhope.org/celebrating-ella-fitzgerald.</ref><ref>Bishop, Elizabeth, and Robert Giroux. ''One Art: Letters''. Pimlico, 1996.</ref>