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Latest revision as of 10:48, 21 January 2023


Emma Lee Dickerson


     
 Given name:     Emma
 Middle name:     Lee
 Family name:     Dickerson
 Place of birth:     Stephens, Kentucky
 Place of death:     Ashland, Kentucky
 Year of birth:     1923
 Year of death:     2001
 Profile:     Musician
 Source of information:     
     

Biographical notes


EMMA LEE DICKERSON (1923-2001) was one of the few documented women to compete at fiddlers' conventions in the 1930's. Her father was a fiddler but died when she was very young, after which the family moved in with her uncle Walter Brickey and his family. Walter was a fiddler as well, and Emma learned from his playing and from musicians in the surrounding community. Still in her teens, she was playing dances and community events, and competing in contests. She married and moved to Baltimore during World War II, where her husband worked in the Navy yards, but returned to Kentucky after the war, moving to Ashland, in the northeastern corner of the state. She put aside the fiddle for some time to raise a family, but picked it up again later, mostly for her own and her family's enjoyment. Her only recordings are eleven field recordings from 1973 when she was visited and interviewed by collector Barbara Kunkle.

Her cousin, Carl Brickey, recalled:

I saw her when she was young, a teenager. Play the fiddle, Charleston dance, and sing, all at the same time. I never see nobody do that but her.