Theodore Weatherford (1903 - 1945)

Born 11 Oct 1903 in Pocahontas, Tazewell, Virginia, United States

Died 25 Apr 1945 at age 41 in Calcutta, India

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Biography

Teddy Weatherford is Notable.

Teddy Weatherford was an American jazz pianist and stride pianist.^[1]

Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920, he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he worked with such bands as that of Erskine Tate through the 1920s and with such jazz notables as Louis Armstrong and Johnny Dodds and impressed the young Earl Hines.

Weatherford then traveled, first to Amsterdam, then around Asia playing professionally. In the early 1930s, he led a band at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. He joined Crickett Smith's band in Jakarta, Indonesia. Weatherford took over leadership of Smith's band in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1937.

During World War II, he led a band in Calcutta, where he made radio broadcasts for the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service. Performers with Weatherford's band included Bridget Althea Moe, Jimmy Witherspoon, Roy Butler and Gery Scott.

Teddy Weatherford died of cholera in Calcutta, aged 41.

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Weatherford

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJN8-F7H : 4 February 2021), Theodore Weatherford in entry for Jack Weatherford, 1920.