Crippen was born in
Philadelphia to an
African-American family. She performed at Edmond's Cellar in
New York City about 1920. In 1921, she recorded four
sides for
Black Swan Records in the
classic female blues style under her name and one under the pseudonym of Ella White, accompanied by
Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. She toured in 1922–23 as the star of a revue, "Liza and Her Shuffling Sextet", which included
Fats Waller. She subsequently formed a revue, "Katie Crippen and Her Kids", in which she was accompanied by a teenaged
Count Basie. She was managed by her husband and musician Lou Henry. In the later 1920s she appeared in revues at the Lafayette Theater in New York City and toured the RKO theater circuit with Dewey Brown as Crippen & Brown. After a long illness, Crippen died of cancer in New York City on November 25, 1929. She is buried in Merion Memorial Park, in
Bala Cynwyd,
Pennsylvania, outside of
Philadelphia. Crippen's complete recordings have been reissued in
CD format by
Document Records on
Fletcher Henderson and the Blues Singers: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order Volume 1 (1921–1923) (DODC-5342). ==Notes==