Della Reese Biography, Songs, & Albums |

Della Reese is a singer, actress, and TV host. She began her career as an opera singer before she switched to jazz music in the 1940s. In 1952 she became one of the first African-American women on television with The Colored Show Starring Joan Davis as well as hosting shows like Playhouse 90 from 1957 to 1959., Della Reese has been called “the embodiment of black America’s strength.”

Della Reese, an American actress and singer, was born on November 26th, 1922. She is most known for her role as Vivian Banks in the television sitcom The Golden Girls. Her career spanned over 50 years and she had a total of 19 acting credits and 14 albums released.

Della Reese’s numerous skills guaranteed a long, diverse, and famous show business career. She was known as a television star as well as a top-flight interpreter of jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, and straight-ahead pop music. Reese was an ordained minister in the Universal Foundation for Better Living, an organization of congregations she helped establish in the early 1980s. She was nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Deloreese by birth Patricia At the age of six, Reese started singing in the Baptist church choir in her birthplace of Detroit on July 6, 1931. After quickly rising to fame, Reese attracted the attention of renowned gospel queen Mahalia Jackson, who asked her to join her traveling choir for the following five summers. Reese founded a women’s gospel choir, the Meditation Singers, while attending Wayne State University to study psychology, but her academic career was cut short due to the loss of her mother and her father’s severe sickness. Reese continued to sing with the Meditation Singers and other gospel groups while working odd jobs to help support the rest of her family. Reese began singing in nightclubs after being encouraged by her pastor; her name was too long to fit on marquees, and she eventually arrived at her performing alias by splitting up her first name; recently married to a factory worker named Vermont Adolphus Bon Taliaferro, her name was too long to fit on marquees, and she eventually arrived at her performing alias by splitting up her first name. Reese went to New York and joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra in 1953 after impressing a New York agent who immediately signed her. She signed a recording deal with Jubilee a year later, scoring successes including “And That Reminds Me,” a million-seller in 1957.

After switching to RCA Victor, Reese’s biggest hit was “Don’t You Know?,” a song adapted from Puccini’s La Bohème, which cemented her career, leading to not only frequent appearances on variety shows but also successful nightclub tours across the country and eventually nine years of performances in Las Vegas, as well as recording contracts with a variety of labels over the next few decades.

Reese made television history in 1969 when she became the first woman to guest-host The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, building on her prior variety show expertise. Later that year, she became the first African-American woman to host her own variety program, Della, which aired until 1970. Following the show’s cancellation, Reese resumed her nightclub tours, making frequent guest appearances on television series such as The Mod Squad, Sanford and Son, and Chico and the Man; she also married producer Franklin Lett in 1978, following three previous unsuccessful marriages.

Reese had a brain aneurysm on October 3, 1980, while recording a song for The Tonight Show; nevertheless, she was able to recover completely due to a successful surgery. She continued to sing on television programs such as Designing Women, L.A. Law, and Picket Fences, as well as in Eddie Murphy’s films Harlem Nights and The Distinguished Gentleman. Reese also appeared in the Redd Foxx comedy The Royal Family from 1991 to 1992, and received her greatest degree of fame in the inspirational drama series Touched by an Angel, which aired on the CBS network for nine years, from 1994 to 2003. Following the conclusion of Touched by an Angel, Reese continued to appear on television in sporadic roles until 2014. She died in November 2017 at the age of 86 at her home in Encino, California.

Della Reese was an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She is known for her roles in the films The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1972), To Sir, with Love (1967), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967). Her career spanned more than six decades. Reference: how did della reese die.