Who's Stormé?

The Beginning 
1923-1942

Stormé always said that she was the child of a Black woman and a white man and that she was born in New Orleans.

Both her foster parents, Harvey and Rose (Conway) Hublitz, had connections to New Orleans. They'd met and married in Memphis in 1919 when Harvey was stationed there with the Coast Guard. In 1920 he was discharged in New Orleans. Harvey's mother Sarah Anne Canenburg was born in New Orleans in 1862; after her mother's death, her father had moved the family to Nebraska. Rose had lived in New Orleans for a period before her marriage to Harvey.

Rose brought two older children to the marriage, Carrie Elizabeth (8) and George Lewis (10), both born in Illinois.

Some time after Harvey was discharged, he moved the family back to Box Butte County, Nebraska. I don't know if they moved there before or after taking in Viva to foster, but she was with them, age 6 and listed as Viva M. Thomas, boarder, on the 1930 census, and that's where she was raised. By 1940 she was listed as their adopted daughter, Viva M. Hublitz.

Stormé stated many times that because she was a mixed race child in Louisiana, she was never issued a birth certificate. She told Avery Willard in the 1960s that she never knew her parents and had been raised by her foster parents, and the evidence I've found suggests that was true. That interview, published in Willard's book Female Impersonation is the earliest documentation I've found her 24 Dec 1920 birthdate listed. And that date is interesting to me because Rose's birthday was 25 December. What I've found on Rose suggests that, just like Stormé, she may not have known her actual date of birth or her parents.

By 1930 Carrie Elizabeth had married Ben Freeman; she, her husband, and their infant daughter are living separatedly from the Hublitzes.

In 1940 George had married Marge Simonson and they had a small son, Andrew. The three are living with the Hublitzes.
 

George was Stormé's only brother, so was very likely the brother who rescued her when she'd been beaten up and left hanging on a fence by one leg (leaving her leg badly injured and Stormé with a limp she'd have all her life). It just wasn't in New Orleans. 

She certainly did have that leg injury; Kurt Mann mentions it in his interview on queermusicheritage.com, stating that she referred to her leg brace as "Jonah". Lisa Cannistraci notes in her Profiles in Pride interview that Stormé limped all her life due to that injury. Stormé told Kirk Klocke "Oh, I'm crippled in one leg; it took me years to get the brace off my leg. I got a big scar here where they left me hanging on a fence by one leg. My brother got me off."

Stormé's vocal talents were evident early on. In November 1939, 15 year old Viva was part of a concert in which she performed two solo numbers. She was mentioned in the newspaper several times in 1940 for the solos she sang at church, in school concernts, and at local events.

In 1940 she received a "good" rating for her voice in the annual high school music competition. In 1941 she received an "excellent" and in 1942 she received two "superior" ratings, one for her solo and one for the girls trio she was part of with Esther Vance and Coralee Beagle.

Stormé graduated with her class on 28 May 1942. On the previous Sunday she'd performed as part of the girls trio at the Baccalaureate ceremony at the city auditorium.

 

Leaving Home: 1942-1943

Two weeks after her graduation, the Alliance Municipal Band Concert series started, and Viva Hublitz was part of it. I couldn't find clippings for every week, but Viva was listing as a soloist for the 7 weeks I could find. She sang:

"Blues in the Night", "Memphis Blues", "Alice Blue Gown", "Basin Street Blues", "Old Man River", "Angels of Mercy", "White Cliffs of Dover", "Stardust", "My Wild Irish Rose", and "Blues in the Night" was requested by her again for the last of the ten weekly concerts.

After years of multiple mentions in the local paper each year, Viva was only mentioned twice for the rest of 1942: when her father died in October, and in mid December when she was in the chorus of the Messiah.

Harvey Hublitz was the only father figure she had, so he's almost certainly the father/grandfather who Stormé credits with telling her at age 15 that if she didn't stop running, she'd be running all her life. She noted "I stopped running and I've never run a day since".  

Harvey died tragically from a head injury. Stormé is mentioned in a newspaper article about his death, but it doesn't mention whether she's living in town. She, Elizabeth Hublitz Freeman, and George were all listed as Harvey's foster children. 

I believe this late summer/fall in 1942, after the concert series ended, may have been when Stormé left home because of anti-gay abuse. She did also note in at least one interview that she rode horses in the circus as a teen until she had a fall and injury. I also believe she may have been Diana that way; Diana was a dancer and an aerialist.

In Penny Coleman's book Village Elders, Stormé says she was in "Nebraska, of all places" when she won an amateur talent show singing with a jazz band; that win led to a two week engagement and a long singing career. Know she grew up in Nebraska makes we wonder where in Nebraska that talent show was! It could've been local, across the state in Omaha, or anywhere else.

In the same interview she says that she and Diana had been together for 26 years when Diana died soon after the Stonewall riot. That means they met in 1943 at the latest.

The only times I can place her in Alliance in 1943 are March, May, June, and July. She sang twice at municipal concerts and once each at the Presbyterian church and at a Salvation Army wedding. 

There are only 4 later mentions of Viva Hublitz that I've found in currently available newspaper & magazine archives (not including a couple in the local paper of the "On this day 10 years ago" type):

The 20 April 1946 edition of Billboard Magazine lists "Viva Hublitz, blues singer" as a member "Patsy Lee and the Bomberettes" in the Girl Show in Max Goodman's Wonder Shows of America. 

That Girl Show was run by Raynell Golden; her husband George was working as the Concessions Manager. I've not yet found any newspaper clippings for that year's show, but I do have a fair number of clippings from when Stormé worked for Raynell at least 3 more years as Stormy Dale.

On 21 January 1947, the local paper has a photo of her (from the same Bloom photo session as the one Stormé had). It reads "ALLIANCE SINGER -- Viva May Hublitz, daughter of Mrs. Harvey Hublitz of Alliance is a professional singer in Pensacola, Fla. Miss Hublitz is a graduate of the Alliance high school of the class of '42 and is well known in Alliance for her excellent low voice." I suspect she visited at home for Christmas. Or she may have mailed her mother and/or sister copies of her new photos.

Another item appears on 23 December 1949 in the local Alliance paper. It reads "Viva Hublitz, formerly of Alliance and who has been singing professionally in Omaha as "Stormy Dale" is visiting in Alliance with Mr. and Mrs. Ben Freeman. Miss Hublitz is a graduate of the Alliance High School in the class of 1942."

The final time I find Viva's name is than a decade later, November 1960, years after the break with her family. She's named in her mother Rose's obituary as Rose's "step-daughter Viva Hublitz".