Eagle Feathers #180 – Kate Smith

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

“May Day” in this country is a day when the sight of budding trees and flowers tells us that winter is over and children sing around May poles to celebrate the arrival of spring. In other countries, like Russia, it’s a day of viewing parades and exhibiting national pride. Kate Smith would spend her life celebrating both of these practices. She was a singing patriot. She was born on May 1, 1907, May Day, and she died on June 17, 1986, Bunker Hill Day. Kathryn Elizabeth Smith grew up in the nation’s capitol. At eight years old, she sang for World War I veterans; and while attending nursing school as a teen, she sang for patients.

Kate’s first year in show business featured Somerville. As a pudgy teenager of seventeen, she went north to New York City to try her luck as a singer. She was cast in the new musical comedy Honeymoon Lane. The play’s debut was at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, and she was there as part of the company.

As an actress, Smith’s life was tormenting. Because of the character she played, she was the object of jokes and ridicule by clowns, comedians, and the audience, on and off stage. She was a big girl, cast as the character, Tiny Little. Her friends said she would often cry between acts. Despite this, she kept singing until her rescue came in the form of Ted Collins, Vice President of Columbia Records. After hearing her sing, the two made a handshake contract and established a friendship and partnership that spanned their lives.

“Hello everybody … This is Kate Smith.” This was her opening line on her first radio performance, followed by her singing When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. It was her 21st birthday. Paydays of ten dollars a week soon became fifteen hundred, and then, two years later, would grow to five thousand dollars as her popularity exploded. Irving Berlin wrote the song God Bless America for her. She first sang it on Veterans Day, November 11, 1938. As the years went by, many Americans wanted this song to be our national anthem. She donated the song’s royalties to the Boys and Girls Scouts of America.

New England’s 26th Yankee Division was reactivated in 1940, a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. This division’s troops performed Atlantic coastal watch and trained until we entered the war. At that time, half of the 26th was sent immediately to fight in the Pacific, becoming the Americal Division, and the remainder later sailed to Europe. The over one hundred-ship convoy was the largest to sail from the United States. As the ships slipped out of New York’s rainy harbor, troops heard the impassioned sound of Kate Smith standing on the dark pier singing, God Bless America. Many of them would not return.

As a volunteer during World War II, Kate sold more war bonds than anyone in America – over $600 million worth – that would be $8.4 billion in today’s dollars. For over five decades, she hosted her own radio and television shows and personally appeared on dozens of others.

• When she was only eight years old, General Pershing awarded her for entertaining World War I soldiers.
• President Truman cited her for raising $4 million for the American Red Cross.
• Hollywood honored Miss Smith with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• In 1968, Kate recorded a record album, America’s Favorites, together with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
• Ronald Reagan honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982.
• In 2010, the United States Post Office issued a stamp in her honor.

One of her most famous recognitions came from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939. At a British royal family visit to the White House, he announced, “Your Majesties, this is Kate Smith … this is America!”