Personal Life
Kate Smith, who never married, rented various apartments in New York City during her long career. She had a home in Arlington, Va., and kept a summer home on a small island in Lake Placid, New York. She led an active social life and loved having house guests both in town and at Lake Placid.
Her public image was of a happy, agreeable, buoyant personality, very bright and very informed. Those who worked with her in show business also knew her as an executive who knew better than anyone else how to stage her shows, how to present herself at her best, and how to keep everything at the highest professional level. New Yorkers privileged to sit in on her radio broadcasts saw her supervising every aspect of her programs with great knowledge and utmost taste. She was also known for being ahead of the trends. Even on her later tours she was presenting all her hit songs in a long medley at the end and devoting her repertoire to the Beatles, Jimmy Webb, Michel Legrand, and other contemporary composers. In the later days "God Bless America" was sung in a medley with "Sing" from "Sesame Street."
In her later years also, her usually conservative dark gowns were replaced by colorful sequined creations worthy of the The Supremes. Along with Peggy Lee she was one of the few long-careered singers to wade into rock music fearlessly and effectively and that placed her on T.V. variety shows including those of Sonny and Cher, Tony Orlando and Dawn and Donny and Marie Osmond. She also, against all odds, enjoyed some of her greatest recording success in her later years with a series of outstanding albums of contemporary music on RCA Victor. She often said she wasn't much one for nostalgia and also said she was always willing to try something new, at least once. For a living legend, she also was one hip and savvy lady. She was also a cook of considerable note and her name was on a series of best-selling cookbooks which today are collectors' items.
Smith was also an ultra-conservative Republican who opposed unions, communism, socialism, the Equal Rights Amendment, Homosexuality, Abortion, Affirmative Action, and indecency. In 1969, following the Miami incident when Jim Morrison of the Doors, was arrested for indecency exposure, Smith, along with the Lettermen, Jackie Gleason, and Anita Bryant, gave a performance of artists for decency, in Miami, which was commended and hailed by President Richard Nixon. (Source: "Rock Almanac" and "This Date in Rock Music".)
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