1935–2019 · American jazz and R&B singer and stage actor · Detroit
Born Anna Jean Harris in Detroit, DuShon turned professional at fifteen and built a club reputation so close to Dinah Washington’s that Washington herself confronted her about it. She sang with Cootie Williams’s band, cut an early single for Atco with Phil Spector producing, and signed to Chess in 1964, making three critically liked albums with players from the Lou Donaldson and Ramsey Lewis groups. Her Cadet single of “For Once in My Life” was the first version of the song anyone could buy, and its failure effectively ended her recording career — she left Chess after one more single and never recorded again. She went on to a long second life on stage, appearing on Broadway with Cab Calloway in Bubbling Brown Sugar.