This day in music history.

July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday dies at the age of 44. Just a few days before her death, while she lay on her death bed, she was arrested for possession of heroin. Billie hid her drugs in a Kleenex box in her hospital room, a nurse discovered it and turned her in. In the final years of her life Billie had been swindled out of all her money, when she died she had $750 taped to her leg. She posthumously received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Three of her recordings receive Grammy Hall of Fame Awards: "Strange Fruit" , "God Bless the Child" and "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" . The 1972 film "Lady Sings the Blues" is based on her life. Billie once said "A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted."
Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.