Irene Reid was born on September 23, 1930 in Savannah, Georgia, singing in church and in high school in Georgia. In 1947 after her mother passed, she moved to New York City. Toward the end of the year she tried out for an amateur contest at the  Apollo Theater in Harlem, and won the competition for five straight weeks. Soon after she was offered a slot as the featured vocalist with  Dick Vance at the Savoy Ballroom, which she held…