DELLA REESE - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 294618

DELLA REESE
Youthful image of the actress shown from the waist up in this 3½x5 photograph.
Inscribed Photograph signed: "To/Tommy/you're the/Greatest/Della/Reese", Color 3½x5. Born Delloreese Patricia Early in 1931, Della Reese began singing in her hometown of Detroit at age six. Beginning in 1945, she toured with Mahalia Jackson's women's gospel group, The Meditation Singers, for five summers. After joining the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra in 1953, Reese began making records and became known as a skillful interpreter of a number of genres of music, from jazz to R&B to gospel. Nominated for a 1987 Grammy Award as Best Female Soloist in Gospel Music, Reese has achieved a number of firsts over her long career: first performer to take gospel music to the casinos of Las Vegas; first woman to guest-host The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (1969); and first Black woman to host her own variety show (Della, 1969-1970). Reese, an ordained minister, played Tess, the mentoring angel, on the CBS drama, Touched By An Angel, from 1994-2003. Reese was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for the role in 1997 and 1998 and for a Golden Globe in the same category in 1998. Also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 1997 and 1998, Reese won Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 1977, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Reese has appeared in several films, from 1958's Let's Rock to Beauty Shop (2005), in made-for-TV movies and miniseries (including, Roots: The Next Generations, 1979) and has been a guest on numerous TV talk shows and series. Fine condition.