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She was born Rosether Atkins in 1915, in Cotton Plant (Woodruff County). Her parents were cotton pickers; her mother was a singing evangelist and mandolin player. She was singing and playing guitar at age 4. When she was 6, she was traveling with an evangelical troupe, performing gospel and secular music alongside her mother. At a time when black female guitarists were rare, she earned considerable fame as a musical prodigy. In the mid-1920s, she and her mother moved to Chicago, then to New York City in 1938, where she performed at Carnegie Hall as part of a musical extravaganza billed as “From Spirituals to Swing!” In her early 20s, she signed a contract with Decca Records, becoming the first gospel artist to record for a major label. She recorded gospel songs that highlighted her unusual singing talent and her unique ability and guitar style, making her recordings hits on the mainstream music charts.

Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis often credited her as an early influence. She pioneered the use of heavy distortion with the electric guitar that helped shape British blues in the 1960s, including guitarists Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Legendary American vocalists Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner credit her as an early influence.

She had a stroke in 1970, and one of her legs was amputated as a result of diabetes. In 1973, she died in Philadelphia, after a second stroke — the day before a scheduled recording session.

She was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 32-cent commemorative stamp in her honor.