From JET Magazine, September 3, 1964
"Tiny Topsy", a five foot, 250-pound-plus entertainer, whose name in real life was Otha Lee Moore Hall, died in Chicago's Cook County Hospital of a brain hemorrhage and scores of show business folks mourned her passing.
Tiny, 34, married to a South Side Chicago night club owner, Samuel Hall, began her career in the all-negro Chicago suburb of Robbins at the age of five.She eventually worked with such well-known figures as comedian Dick Gregory, the late "Blues Queen" Dinah Washington and Bandleader Red Saunders. She belted the blues, ala Big Maybelle, one of her idols, and was a lightfooted dancer despite her bulky figure.
On hearing of her death, comedian Redd Foxx, Saunders, and tenor saxist Paul Bascomb raised a "sizable" donation at Chicago's Regal Theatre in her behalf.
She is survived by her father, Casey Moore, of Chicago, in addition to her husband. Eight pallbearers, nearly all members of the band that played her husband's club, were required to lift her body.
(P) Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. ebonyjet.com
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