Revella Hughes, raised in a musical family in Huntington, became a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance after moving to New York in the 1920s. She was the first Black soloist at the Peoples’ Concerts in Central Park and performed with notable musicians like Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway.

Hughes was also part of the Four Bon-Bons, a radio and early TV singing group. After returning to Huntington in 1932 to care for her mother, she taught music at the city's segregated Black schools and helped form successful bands and orchestras at Douglass High School and elsewhere.

During World War II, she toured with the USO, entertaining soldiers abroad. Known as the "Sophisticated Lady of the Organ," she retired from live performances in 1955 but returned in 1980 for the New York Women’s Jazz Festival and later performed at the 1984 West Virginia Black Cultural Festival.