Eva Alberta Jessye was born on January 20, 1895 in Coffeyville, Kansas. She graduated from Western Univerity in Quindaro, Kansas in 1914. After receiving a teaching certificate from Langston University in Oklahoma, she taught elementary school and became a reporter and columnist.

She joined a New York choral group, the Dixie Jubilee Singers, in 1926. In 1929, they appared in King Vidor's Hallelujah, the first musical motion picture with an all-African American cast. They eventually became the Eva Jessye Choir. In 1935, George Gershwin selected Jessye as choral director for Porgy and Bess, a production with which she was associated for the next three decades.

Jessye was also active in the Civil Rights movement. The Eva Jessye Choir was selected by Martin Luther King, Jr. as the official chorus for the 1963 March on Washington.

In 1974, Jessye established the Eva Jessye Afro-American Music Collection at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She established the Eva Jessye Collection at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1977 and served as that University's Artist-In-Residence from 1978 to 1981.

Jessye received honorary degrees, including an honorary doctorate, and numerous other accolades from government, educational, and musical organizations. She was named Kansas Ambassador for the Arts by Governor John Carlin in 1981.

Eva Alberta Jessye died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on February 21, 1992.

[Information for this biography obtained from the Pittsburg State University Digital Commons.]