On May 27, the Postal Service will honor Kate Smith (1907-1986), a much beloved singer and entertainer best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
A native of Washington, DC, Smith won amateur singing contests as a youth and was invited to sing at a White House dinner. After moving to New York to pursue a career in show business, she became a radio star in the early 1930s—popular for her homespun personality as well as for her singing.
During World War II, polls ranked her as one of the most important women in America. In the early 1950s, she hosted a daytime television show, the Kate Smith Hour, as well as a prime time show, the Kate Smith Evening Hour. In 1973, toward the end of her career Smith sang “God Bless America” at Philadelphia Flyers hockey games. Philly fans considered her a good luck charm as the Flyers won two Stanley Cups and other big games when she sang. The team later erected a bronze statute of her outside the Spectrum arena.
She will be honored with an event beginning at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 11, 2010, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
For more details about the event, see the U.S. Postal Service's advisory.
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