Short answers, pulled from the story.
Eleanora Fagan, known professionally as Billie Holiday, was born on the 7th of April 1915 in Philadelphia. She grew up in Baltimore during a difficult childhood marked by her mother's absences while working transportation jobs.
Billie Holiday took her professional pseudonym from actress Billie Dove and her father Clarence Halliday. She began singing professionally in Harlem nightclubs around 1929 after joining her mother there in early 1929.
Strange Fruit became Billie Holiday's biggest-selling record and is considered her claim to fame. Her producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive so Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records label on the 20th of April 1939.
Billie Holiday was arrested for possession of narcotics in her New York apartment on the 16th of May 1947. The conviction caused her to lose her New York City Cabaret Card which prevented her from working anywhere that sold alcohol.
Billie Holiday died two days after being taken to Metropolitan Hospital on the 31st of May 1959 at age 44. She suffered from pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis.