Yancey, born Estelle Harris, grew up in Chicago, where she sang in church choirs and learned how to play the guitar. In 1917, when she was 21, she married Jimmy Yancey. She often sang with him at meetings and house parties in the 1930s and 1940s and performed with him at Carnegie Hall, New York in 1948. Because Jimmy Yancey was a great boogie-woogie/blues piano player, but a poor singer, Estelle recorded frequently with her husband. In 1943, the Yanceys recorded for Session Records, and went back into the studio to record the album "Pure Blues" for Atlantic Records. The session was just a few months before Jimmy Yancey's death that same year.