Lil Greenwood

Lil Greenwood, born Lillian Belle George on November 18, 1923, in Prichard, Alabama, was an American jazz and R&B singer, songwriter, and Broadway performer. Her father served as a Baptist minister, and she attended Alabama State College before beginning a career in teaching. In 1948, with her husband serving in the military, Greenwood relocated to San Francisco and left teaching behind to pursue music professionally.

Her early performing years in San Francisco included engagements at the Purple Onion club and a stint singing with Roy Milton and his Solid Senders that lasted from 1950 to 1953. During that same period she recorded under her own name for the Modern and Federal labels. On June 25, 1950, she appeared alongside Roy Milton at the sixth annual Cavalcade of Jazz at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, sharing the bill with Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Pee Wee Crayton, Big Jay McNeely, and Tiny Davis and her Hell Divers.

In 1956, Duke Ellington recruited Greenwood as a featured soloist with his orchestra. She recorded and toured with Ellington over the following six years, representing a defining chapter of her musical career. After departing from the Ellington organization, she continued recording singles for various independent labels.

Greenwood's work extended into theater and television. In 1971 she appeared on Broadway in Hello, Dolly!, and later in the 1970s she made guest appearances on the television series Good Times and The Jeffersons. In 2007 she recorded the CD Back to My Roots with David Amram.

A stroke in 2010 left Greenwood unable to perform. She died on July 19, 2011, in Prichard, Alabama, and was buried at the Catholic Cemetery of Mobile, Alabama.