Billie Pierce

Wilhelmina Madison Goodson (June 8, 1907 – September 29, 1974), known professionally as Billie Pierce, was an American jazz pianist and singer, who performed and recorded with her husband De De Pierce. After settling in New Orleans in 1930, she played in the bands of A.J. Piron, Alphonse Picou, Emile Barnes, and George Lewis. There was a seventh daughter, Maggie, who died young. Billie was the second youngest of the girls; the order of the sisters from oldest to youngest went Mabel (b. 1899), Della, Sadie (1903), Edna (1904), Billie (1907), and Ida (1909).

Goodson was never formally trained to read music. Both of her parents musicians, they played hymns and sang in the choir at the Baptist church where Madison Goodson was a Deacon. According to Billie, she was about two years old when she first started to play the piano.

Though her parents disapproved of ragtime, blues, and jazz, only playing religious music, Billie and her sisters were drawn to it. When Ms. Pierce was about ten years old, she and her sisters would go down to the Belmont Theatre to listen to Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, and Bessie Smith when they passed through Pensacola, Florida. In 1922, when Ms. Pierce was almost thirteen, Bessie Smith passed through town again. Bessie's pianist, Clarence Williams, suffered a heart attack and Ms. Pierce subbed in to played piano with Bessie Smith for two weeks at the Belmont Theatre. however, during this time she was actually accompanying Ida Cox at the Belmont Theatre. After her time accompanying Ms. Cox, Billie toured as a singer, dancer, and pianist.

Pierce settled in New Orleans in 1930. By the 1930s, she was leading a four-piece group at the Kingfish (also known as the Pig Pen). Pierce toured more widely with the Mighty Wiggle Carnival (owned by Jack Shaffer), She was a regular on the New Orleans jazz scene in the 1950s through the early 1970s, playing in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Discography With De De Pierce Blues and Tonks from the Delta (Riverside, 1961) Vocal Blues and Cornet in the Classic Tradition (Riverside, 1961) Jazz at Preservation Hall 2 (Atlantic, 1963) New Orleans' Billie & De De and Their Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Preservation Hall 1966) New Orleans Jazz (Arhoolie, 1971) Billie and De De Pierce at Luthjen's (Center, 1976) 1960 (G.H.B., 1994)