I believe the reality was somewhere in between what Don and John wrote. Susan Reed certainly was a folksinger before 1950, and she was bringing folk music to the night club scene in the same manner as Josh White and Burl Ives. But before Susan Reed went off to study traditional ballads, she had been appearing in night clubs as a pop jazz singer. But that was in the forties rather than the fifties. I wouldn't say "she was too pop for the hard core folkies and too trad for the Kingston Trio crowd." Rather, I would say she was too suave for either group.

--- Steve