BESSIE SMITH
Name: Bessie Smith
Born: 15 April 1894 Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Died: 26 September 1937 Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA
Bessie Smith (July, 1892 or April, 1894 - September 26, 1937) was the most
popular and successful female American blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s,
and a strong influence on subsequent generations, including Billie Holiday,
Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone and Janis Joplin.
For the 1900 census, Bessie Smith's mother, Laura Smith, reported that Bessie
was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in July, 1892. However, for the following
census (1910), her sister, Viola Smith, reported the date as April 15, 1894;
that date appears on all subsequent documents and was the one observed by Bessie
and her family. There remains a serious debate regarding the size of Bessie
Smith's family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, but
the 1900 census reports data that is at odds with the recollections of her
family and contemporaries.
That Bessie was the daughter of Laura (Owens) Smith and William Smith is not in
dispute. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was
listed in the 1870 census as a minister of the gospel, in Moulton, Lawrence,
Alabama) who died before Bessie could remember him. By the time Bessie was nine,
she had lost her mother as well, and her older sister Viola was left in charge
of caring for her sisters and brothers.
As a way of earning money for their impoverished household, Bessie and her
brother Andrew began performing on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo, she
singing and dancing, he accompanying on guitar; their preferred location was in
front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of
the city's African-American community.
In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home by joining a small
traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she
would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud, "that's why he left
without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course,
she was only a child."
Bessie's turn came in 1912, when Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the
Stokes troupe and arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give her
an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company
also included Ma Rainey.
By the early 1920s, Bessie had starred with Sidney Bechet in "How Come?", a
musical that made its way to Broadway, and spent several years working out of
Atlanta's 81 Theater, performing in black theaters along the East Coast.
Following a run-in with the producer of "How Come?", she was replaced by Alberta
Hunter and returned to Philadelphia, where she now lived. It was there that she
met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7,
1923, just as her first recordings were being released by Columbia Records. The
marriage was a stormy roller coaster affair with infidelity on both sides.
During the marriage, Bessie became the biggest headliner on the black Theater
Owners Booking Association ( T.O.B.A.) circuit, running a show that sometimes
features as many as 40 troupers and made her the highest-paid black entertainer
of her day. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business
life, especially not Bessie's embrace of both sexes. In 1929, when Bessie
learned of Jack Gee's affair with another performer, Gertrude Saunders, she
ended the marriage, but a legal divorce was never sought. Bessie Smith
eventually found a common law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was
Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband, and with whom she
stayed until her death.
Name: Bessie Smith
Born: 15 April 1894 Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Died: 26 September 1937 Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA
Bessie Smith (July, 1892 or April, 1894 - September 26, 1937) was the most
popular and successful female American blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s,
and a strong influence on subsequent generations, including Billie Holiday,
Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone and Janis Joplin.
For the 1900 census, Bessie Smith's mother, Laura Smith, reported that Bessie
was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in July, 1892. However, for the following
census (1910), her sister, Viola Smith, reported the date as April 15, 1894;
that date appears on all subsequent documents and was the one observed by Bessie
and her family. There remains a serious debate regarding the size of Bessie
Smith's family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, but
the 1900 census reports data that is at odds with the recollections of her
family and contemporaries.
That Bessie was the daughter of Laura (Owens) Smith and William Smith is not in
dispute. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was
listed in the 1870 census as a minister of the gospel, in Moulton, Lawrence,
Alabama) who died before Bessie could remember him. By the time Bessie was nine,
she had lost her mother as well, and her older sister Viola was left in charge
of caring for her sisters and brothers.
As a way of earning money for their impoverished household, Bessie and her
brother Andrew began performing on the streets of Chattanooga as a duo, she
singing and dancing, he accompanying on guitar; their preferred location was in
front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of
the city's African-American community.
In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home by joining a small
traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she
would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud, "that's why he left
without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course,
she was only a child."
Bessie's turn came in 1912, when Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the
Stokes troupe and arranged for its managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give her
an audition. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company
also included Ma Rainey.
By the early 1920s, Bessie had starred with Sidney Bechet in "How Come?", a
musical that made its way to Broadway, and spent several years working out of
Atlanta's 81 Theater, performing in black theaters along the East Coast.
Following a run-in with the producer of "How Come?", she was replaced by Alberta
Hunter and returned to Philadelphia, where she now lived. It was there that she
met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7,
1923, just as her first recordings were being released by Columbia Records. The
marriage was a stormy roller coaster affair with infidelity on both sides.
During the marriage, Bessie became the biggest headliner on the black Theater
Owners Booking Association ( T.O.B.A.) circuit, running a show that sometimes
features as many as 40 troupers and made her the highest-paid black entertainer
of her day. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business
life, especially not Bessie's embrace of both sexes. In 1929, when Bessie
learned of Jack Gee's affair with another performer, Gertrude Saunders, she
ended the marriage, but a legal divorce was never sought. Bessie Smith
eventually found a common law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was
Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband, and with whom she
stayed until her death.