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Willmer "Little Axe" Broadnax A Gospel Singer and Secret Transman
And here's some history I only recently learned, of the transgender kind. It may remind you of the story of Billy Tipton, a jazz musician who only at his death it was found that he was a woman, passing as a man for decades (see my blog entry). The same secret truth existed for Willmer Broadnax, known as Little Axe. Born and raised in Houston, he started his career young. During the 1940s and 50s he sang with some of the finest groups in gospel music, including the Golden Echoes, the Fairfield Four and the Blind Boys of Mississippi. By the 1960s the popularity of the gospel quartets was fading and he retired to Philadelphia, though he did perform once in a while during the 70s and 80s. He met a violent death at age 75 in 1994 when he was stabbed by his girlfriend. It was only then discovered that he was a transman. I
believe racism plays a hand when you compare the Tipton and Broadnax
stories. Tipton's death received a lot of publicity, and a book on
him was written, despite him being almost unknown as a musician when
alive. Broadnax, in his genre of gospel, performed in several very
prominent groups, recorded for decades, and died five years after
Tipton. Little publicity, no book...but then he was black.
The
back of the LP has a wealth of career information on Broadnax, and
print
A number of videos can be found on Youtube
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