Alpha Smith: Who Is Louis Armstrong’s Ex-Wife? Wiki, Age, Kids, Family, Death, and Obituary

Louis Armstrong’s third wife, Alpha Smith, was one of the latter. She was a young and beautiful woman who caught his eye in Chicago, but their marriage was short-lived and ended in divorce. Who was Alpha Smith and what was her relationship with Louis Armstrong like? Here is what we know about her life.

Alpha Smith Wiki/Bio

Name	Alpha Smith
Birth date	September 16, 1906
Birthplace	Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Death date	January 1960
Death place	Los Angeles, California, USA
Burial place	Woodlawn Cemetery, Santa Monica, California, USA
Ethnicity	African American
Nationality	American
Religion	Unknown
Occupation	Box factory worker, domestic helper
Spouse	Louis Armstrong (m. 1938; div. 1942)
Parents	Richard Wirt Smith and Florence Taylor Homer
Children	None
Links	Wikipedia- @Louis_Armstrong Homepage- Newsunzip

Birthday, Parents, Early Life

Alpha Smith was born on September 16, 1906 (age: 53 years, when died), in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was the daughter of Richard Wirt Smith and Florence Taylor Homer, who were both 21 years old at the time of her birth. Richard Wirt Smith was a pharmacist and the first Black person to own a drugstore in Indianapolis. He was also a prominent figure in the city’s African American community and a leader of the local NAACP chapter. Florence Taylor Homer was a homemaker and a member of the Eastern Star, a fraternal organization for women.

Alpha was their only child, but she had several half-siblings from her father’s second marriage to Lillian Jones, whom he married in 1911 after divorcing Florence. Alpha grew up in a comfortable and well-educated environment, but she also faced racism and discrimination in the segregated society of the early 20th century.

Meeting Louis Armstrong

Alpha Smith moved to Chicago with her mother when she was a teenager, and they lived in a poor and dingy apartment on the south side of the city. She worked as a domestic servant for a wealthy white family in Hyde Park, but she also had a passion for music and dancing. She frequented the Vendome Theater, a popular venue for jazz and vaudeville shows, where she first saw Louis Armstrong perform.

Armstrong was a rising star in the jazz world, playing the cornet and later the trumpet with various bands and orchestras. He was also married to his second wife, Lillian “Lil” Hardin, a pianist and composer who helped him advance his career. However, he was not faithful to her and had many affairs with other women.

One of them was Alpha Smith, who caught his attention with her big and pretty eyes. He wrote in his autobiography, Louis Armstrong: In His Own Words, that “Alpha was a little cute young girl 19 years old when she used to come to the Vendome Theater twice a week. And she would sit right where I could get a good look at her. And I couldn’t keep from diggin’ her.”

He soon started a romance with her, and even moved in with her and her mother in their apartment. He said that he was happier there than anywhere else, and that she and her mother took good care of him and cooked him his favorite meals. He also bought Alpha some fine new clothes and jewelry, and taught her how to play the piano.

Marriage and Divorce

Armstrong and Smith’s relationship lasted for almost a decade, but it was not without problems. Armstrong often left Chicago to play in other cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, and he did not always keep in touch with Alpha. He also continued to see other women, and even married another one, Daisy Parker, in 1931, while still legally married to Lil Hardin. He later annulled his marriage to Parker, but he did not divorce Hardin until 1938.

That same year, he finally married Alpha Smith in a civil ceremony in Chicago. He said that he did it to make her happy, and that he loved her very much. However, their marriage was not recognized by the state of Illinois, because he had not obtained a divorce decree from Hardin. He also did not tell her about his previous marriages, and she only found out about them later from the newspapers.

Their marriage was also troubled by Armstrong’s busy and demanding schedule, his constant traveling, and his infidelity. He often left Alpha alone at home, or took her with him on the road, where she had to endure his mood swings, his drinking, and his flirting with other women. He also became involved with another woman, Lucille Wilson, a dancer at the Cotton Club in Los Angeles, who would later become his fourth and final wife.

Alpha and Armstrong’s marriage lasted for four years, but they separated in 1941 and divorced in 1942. She said that she still loved him, but she could not stand his lifestyle and his cheating. She also said that he was abusive and violent towards her, and that he once hit her so hard that he broke her jaw. She sued him for alimony and a share of his property, but she did not get much from him. She also claimed that he owed her money for helping him write some of his songs, but he denied it.

Height, Weight

• Height: 5 feet 1 inches
• Weight: 52 kg

Later Life and Death

After her divorce from Armstrong, Alpha Smith faded from the public eye. She did not remarry, and she did not have any children. She worked as a box factory worker in Chicago, and later moved to Los Angeles, where she lived with her mother until her death. She died in January 1960, at the age of 53, from a heart attack. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California, next to her mother.

Obituary

Alpha Smith, the former wife of jazz legend Louis Armstrong, died on January 1960, in Los Angeles, California. She was 53 years old.

Smith was born on September 16, 1906, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Richard Wirt Smith and Florence Taylor Homer. She was the daughter of the first Black pharmacist in Indianapolis, and a member of a prominent and well-educated African American family.

She moved to Chicago with her mother when she was a teenager, and worked as a domestic servant for a wealthy white family. She also loved music and dancing, and frequented the Vendome Theater, where she met Louis Armstrong, a rising star in the jazz world.

They started a romance that lasted for almost a decade, and married in 1938, after Armstrong divorced his second wife, Lillian Hardin. However, their marriage was not recognized by the state of Illinois, and they faced many difficulties due to Armstrong’s career, traveling, and infidelity. They separated in 1941 and divorced in 1942.

Smith did not remarry, and did not have any children. She worked as a box factory worker in Chicago, and later moved to Los Angeles, where she lived with her mother until her death. She died from a heart attack in January 1960, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.

Smith was a beautiful and talented woman, who loved and supported Louis Armstrong, but also suffered from his abuse and neglect. She was a forgotten wife of a famous man, but she deserves to be remembered for her own life and achievements. She was survived by her half-siblings, nieces, nephews, and friends.

Net Worth

Year	Net Worth
1959	$700K
1958	$600K