Kate Smith’s family ‘heartbroken’ after Yankees, Flyers distance themselves from singer

Kate Smith’s family said they are “heartbroken” that the Yankees and Flyers distanced themselves from the “God Bless America Singer” after learning she sang two racially insensitive songs in the 1930s.

Smith’s niece, Suzy Andron, and her husband Bob told USA Today Sports on Saturday night that they were surprised and upset by the recent stories that cast the late singer as racist for performing two songs entitled “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” and “Pickaninnies’ Heaven” in the early 1930s.

Both songs contain racist language and references, though the former has been characterized as satire. It also was performed at the time by Paul Robeson, who was black.

When the Yankees last month became aware of Smith’s history, they switched to a keyboard version of “God Bless America.” The Yankees had played the song in the middle of every game since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the insistence of late owner George Steinbrenner.

The Androns also told the website that Kate Smith, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor by Ronald Reagan in 1982 when her health was declining, did a lot for patriotic causes during World War II.

According to “Kate Smith: A Bio-Bibliography,” the late singer is credited with helping sell $600 million in war bonds during the war.

Bob Andron, 74, said he believes people are unfairly focusing on the two songs Smith performed early in her 20s when she was “trying to make her mark as a singer,” adding that Smith sang the pieces but did not write them.

“It’s somebody who found the words to two songs that she sang, out of 3,000 that she recorded, and tried to make a case out of it,” Bob Andron said. “And my heart goes out to them, too. Because they’re misguided. They don’t understand what kind of a person Kate Smith was.”
Suzy Andron helped take care of Smith in North Carolina before she died and said she never had any talks with her aunt about those particular songs.

She also strongly objected to the characterization that her aunt was as racist.

“[I’m] saddened that a woman who has been dead for almost 35 years would be attacked in this way,” she said. “Aunt Kathryn really did not see color. She didn’t see a person’s color. She was very in tune with a person’s character. I’ve always thought that was a model, to not see a person’s color but to see their character.

“And this is why I’m incredibly sad.”

The Androns are unhappy that Smith’s voice won’t be heard at Yankee Stadium anymore, and hope fans will sing “God Bless America” anyway.

“People can connect dots in different ways,” Bob Andron said. “These folks — whoever they were, bless them. They connected the wrong dots.”

This isn’t the first singer the Yankees have cut ties with. In 2009, the organizations stopped using singer Ronan Tynan, who had made numerous appearances at the Stadium to sing “God Bless America,” after he was alleged to have made anti-Semitic comments.

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