‘An angel in a red dress’: Friend remembers New Orleans jazz singer killed on 9/11

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Five people from Louisiana died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including New Orleans jazz singer Elizabeth Ann Farmer.

Decades later, one of her close friends is sharing memories of Farmer’s life, hoping to connect with others who can help keep the musician’s legacy alive.

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Detective Suzie Cambre remembers her friend, known as Betty Farmer, as bold and fearless. Beyond performing as a jazz singer in New Orleans, Farmer owned nightclubs in Denver and Chicago.

“She dated Duke Ellington,” Detective Cambre said. “And she sang with his big band. She also was in a hub in Louisiana in New Orleans with the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra.”

Farmer also performed alongside Cambre’s husband.

“She worked with my husband,” Cambre said. “She was extremely well known, extremely popular, and I got to tell you when I met her she was in her 60s. She has an hourglass figure, low-cut, beautiful red sequined dress, red lipstick, red red red hair and she walked into a room and the charisma just knocked everybody out of this world.”

Cambre said Farmer could dazzle an entire crowd, but she also knew how to make each individual feel special — including Cambre, who was born deaf.

“She knew that I couldn’t hear. She knew that I married a drummer -- deaf women like percussionists, you know -- and she would stop the show and she would walk over to me with the microphone and put my hand on her throat so that I could enjoy the song too. Now tell me if that’s not somebody very special.”

Farmer moved to New York just three weeks before Sept. 11 to begin a new chapter, taking a daytime office job so she could keep her nights open for music, according to Cambre.

“When we heard about the planes and the towers and stuff the last thing we thought was her luck would have put her in that tower,” Cambre said.

Reports say Farmer was working on a floor just above where a hijacked airliner struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower. She did not make it out.

Weeks later, Cambre, who served as a trauma deputy, traveled to New York to support firefighters responding to the disaster.

“I pray that I never have to go through anything like that again, however, there was an angel up there who’s wearing a red dress with big, big wings saying ‘Laissez les bons temps rouler.’”

Cambre visits Farmer’s online legacy page every year on Sept. 11, but she notices the tributes dwindle with each passing anniversary. She hopes sharing Farmer’s story will inspire those who knew the vibrant singer to share their own memories and ensure she is never forgotten.

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