'Sissieretta Jones' by Maureen Lee: 'Jones is buried in an unmarked grave in Rhode Island's Grace Church Cemetery'

[Sissieretta Jones: The Greatest Singer of Her Race 1868-1933; Maureen Donelly Lee; University of South Carolina Press (2012)]

John Malveaux of www.MusicUNTOLD.com brought this book to our attention:

The Richmond Voice

"Virginia native, Sissieretta Jones, blazed musical trail”

By Rick Massimo

"Born Matilda Sissieretta Joyner in Portsmouth, in Virginia's Eastern Shore, Sissieretta Jones became one of the greatest singers ever to come out of Rhode Island and one of the state's biggest musical mysteries. And a new book by a Rhode Island native tries to give Jones the credit she deserves. 

“Sissieretta Jones: The Greatest Singer of Her Race 1868-1933,” by Maureen Donelly Lee, traces the story of the opera, light opera and pop singer who moved to Providence's Congdon Street as a child.

“She eventually sang for four presidents and the British royal family, toured the country several times and traveled to South America, Australia, India, Europe and the West Indies and earned the nickname “Black Patti,” after the grand Italian diva Adelina Patti. Later, Jones toured with her own variety show, The Black Patti Troubadours, before returning to Providence to care for her mother and family, dying poor at age 65. Jones is buried in an unmarked grave in Rhode Island's Grace Church Cemetery.”