Kate Smith
Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American contralto.[1][2][3][4] Referred to as The First Lady of Radio, Smith is well known for her renditions of "God Bless America" and "When the Moon Comes over the Mountain". She became known as The Songbird of the South because of her tremendous popularity during World War II.
For other uses, see Kate Smith (disambiguation).
Kate Smith
Kathryn Elizabeth Smith
May 1, 1907
Greenville, Virginia, U.S.
June 17, 1986 (aged 79)
Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.
Singer
1926–1976
Early life[edit]
Smith was born on May 1, 1907, in Greenville, Virginia, to Charlotte 'Lottie' Yarnell (née Hanby) and William Herman Smith and grew up in Washington, D.C.[5] Her father owned the Capitol News Company, distributing newspapers and magazines in the greater D.C. area.[6] She was the youngest of three daughters, the middle child dying in infancy. She failed to talk until she was four years old,[6] but a year later she was singing at church social events. By the time she was eight, she was singing for the troops at Army camps in the Washington area during World War I. Smith never had a singing lesson in her life and possessed a 'rich range' of two and a half octaves. Her earliest performances were during amateur nights at vaudeville theaters in D.C.
Her earliest musical influences were her parents: her father sang in the choir at the Catholic church; her mother played piano at the Presbyterian church. She attended Business High School in D.C. (now Theodore Roosevelt High School), likely graduating in 1924. Alarmed by his daughter's evident penchant for the stage, her father sent her to the George Washington University School for Nursing where she attended classes for nine months between 1924 and 1925, withdrawing to pursue a career in show business.[7]
She got herself on the bill at Keith's Theater in Boston as a singer. Heading the bill was the actor and producer Eddie Dowling, who recruited the young singer for a revue he was preparing. It was called Honeymoon Lane, and opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey on August 29, 1926. A month later, it moved to Broadway.
An indelicate review in The New York Times on October 31, 1926, under the heading "A Sophie Tucker Rival", said: "A 19-year-old girl, weighing in the immediate neighborhood of 200 pounds, is one of the discoveries of the season for those whose interests run to syncopators and singers of what in the varieties and nightclubs are known as 'hot' songs. Kate Smith is the newcomer's not uncommon name."
When Honeymoon Lane closed, Smith had difficulty finding work in New York, so she returned to Washington, D.C. where she appeared sporadically in vaudeville.[6] Smith joined the road company of Vincent Youmans' Hit the Deck, where she won acclaim singing "Hallelujah!" as a mammy in blackface.[8] Back in New York City, she took the company lead in George White's Flying High, which opened at the whites only Hurtig & Seamon's New Burlesque Theater (which later became the Apollo Theater) on March 3, 1930, and ran for 122 performances. As Pansy Sparks, Smith's role was to be the butt of Bert Lahr's often cruel jibes about her girth. She said later that she often wept with humiliation in her dressing room after the show.
Death[edit]
In her later years, Smith was impaired by diabetes. In 1976, she suffered brain damage after slipping into a diabetic coma. After she emerged from the coma, her family helped her move in 1979 to Raleigh. In January 1986, Smith's right leg was amputated due to poor circulation caused by diabetes. Five months later, she underwent a mastectomy.[32] On June 17, 1986, Smith died of respiratory arrest at Raleigh Community Hospital in Raleigh at the age of 79.[33]
Patricia Castledine (1939–2021) was Smith's live-in nurse until Smith's death.[34] Castledine became the president of the Kate Smith Fan Club after Smith's death and continued to hold that post until her own death in 2021.
For over a year following her death, Smith's remains were stored in a vault at St. Agnes Cemetery in Lake Placid, while officials of St. Agnes Church and the singer's executors engaged in a dispute over Smith's request to be buried in a mausoleum on the cemetery's grounds. Her private burial service was held on November 14, 1987.[35]