Thomas becomes the seventh musician to be inducted into the park at 311 Bourbon, joining Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Antoine “Fats” Domino, Ronnie Kole, Louis Prima and Chris Owens.
“I have had a remarkable career and it is an absolute thrill to be joining my friends in New Orleans Musical Legends Park. Awards of this caliber are once in a lifetime and to be able to celebrate it with my friends and family in the place I call home is exhilarating,” Thomas said.
The event will feature a tribute to Thomas from students in musician and educator Damon Batiste’s New Orleans Arts and Education Initiative, the unveiling and a reception.
“Irma is one of America’s most soulful and dynamic singers … she has a place among New Orleans’ — if not the nation’s — greatest musicians,” said Dottie Belletto, executive director of the park. “At a time when Irma continues to be as powerful as ever and forever the cultural ambassador for our city, we celebrate her career as the Soul Queen of New Orleans.”
Thomas, born Irma Lee on Feb. 18, 1941, in Ponchatoula, moved with her family to New Orleans shortly after her birth. She began singing as a teen in a gospel quartet at Home Mission Baptist Church, and made her first recording of a school song at Cosimo Matassa’s famous studio on North Rampart Street. In 1959, band leader Tommy Ridgley was playing at a club where the young singer was waiting tables, and she asked to join his band.
Ridgley helped Thomas get a recording contract, leading to the release of her debut single — Dorothy LeBostrie’s “(You Can Have My Husband, But Please) Don’t Mess With My Man.” Eventually, other hits included “Break-Away,” “It’s Raining” and “Time is on My Side.”
In 2007, her album “After the Rain” won a Grammy Award for best contemporary blues album, her first in a career spanning more than 50 years.
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