Delisa Newton is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 nurse and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 vocalist  in the American press, most notably in a 1966 issue of Sepia

Sepia (magazine)

Sepia, a photojournalistic magazine styled like Look and sometimes compared to Ebony, featured articles based primarily on the achievements of African Americans. It was published in Fort Worth, Texas by Good Publishing Company , owned and operated by George Levitan, who was not black himself...

.

Born in New Orleans, her mother was of Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an descent, and her Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 minister father left when she was three. In a series of tabloid articles in the mid-1960s, Newton described her transition and life, as well as her personal views.