Mary Stafford

Mary Stafford (ca. 1895 – ca. 1938), born Annie Burns, was an American cabaret singer in the classic blues style. Early life Annie Burns was from Springfield, Missouri, United States. Career In January 1921, Stafford became the first African-American woman to record for Columbia Records. She toured widely throughout the mid-Atlantic states in the 1920s and into the 1930s. She performed at the Lafayette Theater in New York City, where she appeared in Rocking Chair Revue in 1931 and Dear Old Southland in 1932. After 1932 she worked outside the music industry in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where she is thought to have died about 1938.