Mamie (Robinson) Smith (1891 - 1946)

Born 26 May 1891 in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio, United States

Died 16 Sep 1946 at age 55 in Staten Island, New York City, New York, United States

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Mamie Smith was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist, and actress. She made history in 1920 as the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings.

Biography

Mamie (Robinson) Smith is Notable.

Mamie Robinson, daughter of Canadian Benjamin Robinson and Amanda Havey was born on May 26, 1891, in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[1][2]

When she was around ten years old, she found work touring with a White act, the Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney's Smart Set. At the age of 16, she married fellow performer Sam P. Gardner. They divorced in 1912.^[3] In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem. In New York, Mamie married William “Smitty” Smith, also a night club singer, changing her last name permanently to Smith. She was married two more times, to band manager, Ocey (Ossey) Wilson (1921), and film producer Jack Goldberg (1929).^[4] She never had children.

When she passed away in Staten Island, New York on September 16, 1946,^[5] Mamie was reportedly penniless and was interred in an unmarked grave at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Park.

A successful campaign to acquire and erect a headstone for Smith was begun in 2012 by Michael and Anne Fanciullo Cala. The couple, respectively a blues journalist and editor, developed a months-long crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo Web site to purchase a headstone for Smith. The campaign raised over $8,000 that funded the creation of a four-foot-high etched granite headstone featuring an image of the late blues singer.

The monument was erected with great fanfare at Frederick Douglass Cemetery in Staten Island, New York, on September 20, 2013. Excess funds from the campaign were donated to the cemetery for grounds care.^[6].

Research Notes

The year of her birth was previously given as 1883.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Mamie Smith: Queen of the Blues in Cincinnati Music Hall. (2020, August 10). Retrieved April 03, 2021, from https://friendsofmusichall.org/2020/08/08/mamie-smith-queen-of-the-blues-in-cincinnati-music-hall/
2. ↑ https://local12.com/news/local/researchers-confirm-blues-legend-mamie-smith-was-born-in-cincinnati
3. ↑ A source for this information is needed.
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Goldberg
5. ↑ Ancestry Record 60901 #11968400 Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
6. ↑ http://1world1family.me/a-headstone-for-mamie-smith-campaign/
7. ↑ Mamie Smith, Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/smith-mamie-1883-1946

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJ18-HYN : 2 February 2021), Mabel Smith, 1920.
• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4GY-4QV : accessed 1 October 2021), Mamie Smith, Manhattan (Districts 1001-1249), New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1019, sheet 9A, line 15, family 155, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1577; FHL microfilm 2,341,312.
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3YP-WK4 : 7 January 2021), Mamie Smith in household of Sydney Bailey, New York City, New York County, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 31-1857, sheet 3A, line 36, family 73, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2669.
• Wikipedia: Mamie Smith
• Cincinnati's own, Mamie Smith. (2021, January 18). Retrieved April 03, 2021, from https://aaregistry.org/story/cincinnatis-own-mamie-smith/