Sophie Abuza was born on January 13, 1884 in Russia. She immigrated to the United States and settled with her family in Hartford, Connecticut, where she helped out at her parents' kosher diner and roominghouse.

Surrounded by theater performers at a young age, Tucker began singing for her customers. She married Louis Tuck and had a son. After the marriage failed, Sophie altered her name to Tucker and while her son stayed in Connecticute, she moved to New York and got a vaudeville job. First performing in blackface, she soon began singing the songs that made her famous, including "My Yiddishe Momma," throughout the world.

Tucker was known for her outspoken comedy and her husky voice. When she first heard a recording of her own voice, she said, "I sound like a foghorn!" But people loved her, and in 1911 she recorded her theme song, "Some of These Days," for the Edison Company. Her song would have been in the Catalog for Edison Cylinder Records.

By 1914, Sophie Tucker was a star, touring nonstop in the U.S. and Europe. She was also a generous woman both personally and professionally. During World War I she raised over $4 million for service members, and years later she donated all the proceeds from her autobiography, Some of These Days, to charity.

She played in several films in the 1930s and 1940s. Tucker's financial independence was important to her and her philanthropy included personal, as well as, institutional contributions to actors guilds, Jewish and Zionist causes, synagogues and hospitals. Her work challenged stereotypes of age, size and gender and one historian has labeled her a feminist of pop culture.

Tucker liked to call herself "The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas," and she continued to perform in clubs, movies, and on radio, television, and stage until she was 78! How's that for a red-hot career!

Tucker died on February 9, 1966, of lung cancer and kidney disease. She is buried at Emanuel Cemetery, Connecticut.

Tucker's credits include The Joker Is Wild (aka All The Way, aka The Joker) (1957) as herself; Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Great Entertainers (1953) as herself; Screen Snapshots: The Great Showman (1950) as herself ; Sensations of 1945 (aka Sensations) as herself; Follow the Boys (aka Three Cheers for the Boys) (1944) as herself; Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937) as Mother 'Aunt Edie' Ralph; Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) as Alice Clayton; Gay Love (1934) as herself; Honky Tonk (1929) as Sophie Leonard; guest appearance on The Tonight Show (1954) playing

She played at the following Strip resorts: Hotel Last Frontier 1944, El Rancho Las Vegas 1954-1956, Riviera 1960, Sahara 1959, Sands 1959