Product Dimensions: 8"x10" photo in 11" x 14" matte
Author/Artist: Center for Southern Folklore Archives

This photograph of Laura Dukes (1907-1992) with her banjo ukulele was taken in 1980. A lifelong Memphian she was known as "Little Laura" or "Little Bit." Dukes was small, measuring four feet and seven inches and weighing only eighty-five pounds. Her father, who played drums for W.C. Handy's band, put Dukes on the stage by the time she was five years old, where she proved to be an explosive singer and performer. She became a regular performer around Beale Street with the Memphis Jug Band, along with Will Shade and Will Batts. In 1954 she recorded for Flyright with Will Batts and for the Albatross label in Memphis in 1972