Elsie West Baker

Elsie West Baker (September 27, 1886 – April 28, 1958) was an American contralto singer who made hundreds of recordings in the 1910s and 1920s. She is sometimes confused with American actress Elsie Baker, who was about the same age.

Early life and education Baker was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of William Drinker Baker and Carrie Ella Green Hammond Baker. She studied voice with Oscar Saenger in New York. Career Baker was a contralto singer. In 1910, she sang for a Washington, D.C. audience that included President WIlliam Howard Taft and his wife. She was a member of the Bethlehem Church Quartet of Philadelphia in 1911, and a soloist at St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City in 1920. She also made hundreds of recordings for the Victor label, and wrote songs. She performed in the Virgin Islands in 1932.

Baker recorded under various names, including Edna Brown, Nora Watson, and Mabel West. She died in 1958, at the age of 71, in New York City.