Dawn Hampton

New York

Dawn was born in 1928, in Middle town, Ohio. Her father, Clark Deacon Hampton, Sr., had a family band and vaudeville act which was part of a travelling carnival. She grew up listening to the music of the family band, Deacon Hampton's Pickaninnys, sitting on an orange box behind her mother Laura's piano.

It wasn't long before the infant Hampton was making a contribution. She began performing at the tender age of three, and two years later sang He Takes Me to Paradise.

Dawn is one of twelve children. Slide Hampton, the well-known jazz trombonist, is the youngest. Two of Dawn's older sisters, Aletra and Virtue, live in Indianapolis and are still performing and there are many more musical Hampton's scattered around the country.


After the war, the family band reunited for several years. There were fourteen pieces and nine Hamptons; Dawn played alto and tenor sax. They travelled under the leadership of her brother Duke, and played throughout the Mid-West and South. Finally, in 1950, the band achieved its dream of performing at Carnegie Hall (along with another well-known, although unrelated Hampton, Lionel).

Once the Big Apple got a taste of the Hampton Family, they were featured at the Apollo Theatre and the Savoy Ballroom. The Hamptons became the House Band at the then-famous Sunset Terrace in Indianapolis, and then moved on to the Cincinatti Cotton Club. Somewhere in the mid-1950's, several brothers went off to study music and Dawn and her sister's Aletra, Virtue and Carmelita continued performing as the Hampton Sisters.

Don't think her bio ends there, come to Herräng and hear the rest of her amazing achievements :)

Dawn Hampton