Lorraine Gordon was born Lorraine Stein in Newark, New Jersey on October 15, 1922. She married Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. She worked for the label packing records, mailing them out, and handling public relations during and after World War II. She divorced Lion and married Max Gordon, founder and owner of the jazz nightclub the Village Vanguard, in 1949. She became a political activist, protesting against nuclear testing and the war in Vietnam. She also worked as a merchandising manager at the Brooklyn Museum. When her husband died in 1989, she took over the club and remained its proprietor for the rest of her life. Her memoir, Alive at the Village Vanguard: My Life in and Out of Jazz Time, was published in 2006. She received a Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2012. She died from complications of a stroke on June 9, 2018 at the age of 95.
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