Virtue Hampton Whitted

Virtue Hampton Whitted (February 22, 1922 – January 17, 2007) was an American jazz singer and bassist who is best known for her performances during the 1940s and 1950s as a member of the Hampton family band and The Hampton Sisters, a musical group she formed during World War II with her siblings, Aletra, Carmalita, and Dawn Hampton.

The Middletown, Ohio, native began performing at a young age and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1938. Hampton and her eight siblings performed in Duke Hampton's band, their oldest brother's jazz orchestra, and became a well-known house band at nightclubs in Indianapolis and Cincinnati, Ohio. The group also toured the United States, playing at venues that included Carnegie Hall, Apollo Theater, and the Savoy Ballroom. After the family's band dissolved in the 1950s, Hampton and two of her sisters, Aletra and Carmalita, performed as the Hampton Sisters for several more years. The trio reunited in Indianapolis in 1981 after a break of nearly twenty years. Hampton and her sister, Aletra, remained active in Indianapolis's jazz community, performing as a duo until 2006.

Hampton and her siblings received Indiana's Governor Arts Award (1991) for their contributions to the state's musical heritage. In addition, Hampton was inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation's Hall of Fame (1999), received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the University of Indianapolis (2004), and was a recipient of NUVO newspaper 's Cultural Vision Lifetime Achievement Award (2006). The Indiana Historical Society released The Hampton Sisters, A Jazz Tribute (2003), a compact disc featuring Virtue and Aletra Hampton. Members of Hampton's musical family include her son, Pharez Whitted, a jazz trumpeter; her youngest brother, "Slide" Hampton, a NEA Jazz Master; and her sister, Dawn, a New York City cabaret singer and swing dancer.