Hampton began performing in her family's band at a young age. During
World War II she formed a quartet with her sisters that eventually became known as the Hamptons Sisters. The women also performed with the Duke Hampton band, their oldest brother's jazz orchestra. When the family band dissolved in the 1950s, Virtue and her two sisters, Carmalita and Aletra, established the Hampton Sisters as a trio and continued to perform for several more years. The threesome reunited in 1981, following a nearly twenty-year hiatus. After Carmalita's death in 1987, Virtue and Aletra Hampton continued to perform as a jazz duo until 2006.
Early years The Hampton family initially formed as the Deacon Hampton's Pickaninny Band, but due to the negative racial connotations, the group changed its name to Deacon Hampton's Family Band (also known as Deacon Hampton and His Band, or Deacon Hampton and the Cotton Pickers). The family traveled the
Midwest, especially in
Pennsylvania,
West Virginia,
Kentucky, and
Indiana, performing at fairs, carnivals, tent shows, and private parties. In addition to dancing and presenting comedy skits, the band performed a variety of musical genres, including country, blues, polka, and jazz music.
Jazz performer The family band took a temporary break during
World War II, but Hampton and her sisters, Carmalita,
Aletra, and
Dawn, formed a short-lived quartet called The Hamptonians and later performed as the Hampton Sisters. Virtue Hampton said that
The Andrews Sisters and
The King Sisters were the inspiration for forming their quartet. When the oldest Hampton brother, Duke, took over as leader of the family band in 1945, following their father's retirement, Virtue Hampton and her sisters joined the group. The fourteen-piece jazz orchestra included the nine surviving Hampton siblings and several well-known
Indiana Avenue musicians, such as Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson and Bill Penick on saxophone, trombonist/bass player Eugene Fowlkes, and drummers Sonny Johnson, Dick Dickerson, and Thomas Whitted, who became Virtue Hampton's husband. In May 1952, as one of the winners in a
Pittsburgh Courier popularity poll of its readers, the Hampton family band performed in concert at
Carnegie Hall in New York City on the same bill as the
Lionel Hampton band, the
Nat King Cole Trio, and singer
Billy Eckstein. Shortly after, Duke Hampton's band returned to New York to perform at the
Apollo Theater and the
Savoy Ballroom. Hampton and her three sisters signed a recording contract in 1954. Their first 78-rpm recording was "Hey Little Boy" a fast-tempo tune, and "My Heat Tells Me", a love ballad. After Duke Hampton's group disbanded in the 1950s, Dawn, the youngest Hampton sister, and "Slide," the youngest brother, pursued solo careers as entertainers in New York City, while Virtue and two other sisters, Carmalita and Aletra, performed as a trio called the Hampton Sisters. The three women reunited as in 1981, after a break of nearly twenty years. ==Later years==