The Career of Willa Mae Lane "Queen of Swing" Willa Mae Lane was born April 13, 1919, the ninth of ten children of Ella and Benjamin King. As a little girl, she loved to dance and dreamed of being a professional dancer. Her brothers and sisters hated her because of her fair skin color, as she refused to work in the cotton fields with them. Her life as a child was lonely. She often thought she was adopted, but the likeness of her and her mother proved her wrong. On her journey to fame, she moved to Cincinnati, to begin a new life. This prepared her for what was to become a great career in singing and dancing. As she finally found happiness with her sister and the family they lived with. During her solo career as singing and dancing, she got a big break working with Lionel Hampton. This open the doors for her working all the famous clubs of her time, "COTTON CLUB" AND "APOLLO!" This marked her career to work with some of the great entertainers of the thirties. CAB CALLAWAY, LIONEL HAMPTON, "LOUIS ARMSTRONG" just to name a few!