Musician: Flo Garvin Deakyne (1927 – 2005)

*Advertisement for Flo Garvin to perform at the Lemon Tree on north Meridian Street in Indianapolis. Photo courtesy Indianapolis Jazz Hall of Fame.*

Born Florence Crawford, Flo Garvin was raised by her strict minister grandmother on the west side of Indianapolis. In her teens, when her grandmother told her she was on the road to hell after she played a piece of popular music, Garvin rebelled and was soon making $50 a night playing piano and singing in Indiana Avenue nightclubs. She also performed with the Jimmy Coe Band at the Cotton Club in Cincinnati and recorded two songs for the King Label with the band. Returning to Indianapolis and the Avenue, she became “the first Black entertainer” to play in the white nightclubs along Meridian Street, where her soft, easy style found a following among the white patrons.

In 1951, WFBM gave her a local TV program, Sentimental Journey. In addition to accompanying herself on piano, she was sometimes joined by the Montgomery Brothers, including Wes Montgomery. Garvin became good friends with another WFBM celebrity, actress Frances Farmer. At the height of her popularity, she was one of the highest paid performers in town. In the early 1980s, her career began slowing down and she gave up performing in 1989. She was inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999.

Listen to Garvin here.