Beulah “Sippie” Wallace

The Arkansas delta’s rich musical and cultural heritage is often overshadowed by the Mississippi delta. Yet as Jimmy Cunningham Jr. and Donna Cunningham note in their book Delta Music and Film: Jefferson County and the Lowlands, published by Arcadia, the Arkansas delta has much to be proud of. Beulah “Sippie” Wallace was born in Plum Bayou. She was one of the top-selling women blues artists between 1923 and 1929, second only to Bessie Smith. A member of the Blues Hall of Fame, she performed with famous artists including Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. According to the Cunninghams, “She and a group of black female blues singers in the 1920s literally transformed popular music and the recording industry when they became the first large-selling recording artists in the United States.”