Over the next few years she and McCoy released a series of records, performing as a duet. She and McCoy went to record in New York City and were given the names Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie by a Columbia A&R man. They were discovered by a talent scout for Columbia Records, in front of a barber shop, where they were playing for dimes. She began performing with Kansas Joe McCoy, her second husband, in 1929. She then went back to Beale Street, with its thriving blues scene, and made her living by playing guitar and singing, supplementing her income with sex work (at that time, it was not uncommon for female performers to turn to sex work out of financial need).

Her sidewalk performances led to a tour of the South with the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1916 to 1920. She played on street corners for most of her teenage years, occasionally returning to her family's farm when she ran out of money. In 1910, at the age of 13, she ran away from home to live on Beale Street, in Memphis. After Minnie's mother died, in 1922, Abe Douglas moved back to Walls, where he died in 1935. The family later moved to Brunswick, Tennessee.

She learned to play the banjo by the age of 10 and the guitar by the age of 11, when she started playing at parties. The following year, she received her first guitar, as a Christmas present. When she was seven years old, she and her family moved to Walls, Mississippi, south of Memphis, Tennessee.

When she first began performing, she played under the name Kid Douglas. It is reported that she disliked the name Lizzie. Her parents, Abe and Gertrude Douglas, nicknamed her Kid when she was young, and her family called her that throughout her childhood. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being ' When the Levee Breaks', ' Me and My Chauffeur Blues', 'Bumble Bee' and 'Nothing in Rambling'.ĭouglas was born on June 3, 1897, probably in Tunica County, Mississippi, although she claimed to have been born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in the Algiers neighborhood. Lizzie Douglas (J– August 6, 1973), better known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades.

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