Kate Smith’s family ‘heartbroken’ after Yankees, Flyers distance themselves from singer – New York Post

Kate Smith’s family stated they’re “heartbroken” that the Yankees and Flyers distanced themselves from the “God Bless The us Singer” after finding out she sang two racially insensitive songs within the 1930s.

Smith’s niece, Suzy Andron, and her husband Bob urged USA On the present time Sports on Saturday night that they had been deal surprised and upset by the recent tales that solid the leisurely singer as racist for performing two songs entitled “That’s Why Darkies Had been Born” and “Pickaninnies’ Heaven” within the early 1930s.

Both songs contain racist language and references, despite the indisputable fact that the feeble has been characterised as satire. It moreover became as soon as performed at the time by Paul Robeson, who became as soon as murky.

When the Yankees closing month changed into attentive to Smith’s historical previous, they switched to a keyboard version of “God Bless The us.” The Yankees had played the tune within the course of each game since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults at the insistence of leisurely proprietor George Steinbrenner.

The Androns moreover urged the web page that Kate Smith, who became as soon as awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor by Ronald Reagan in 1982 when her health became as soon as declining, did loads for patriotic causes all over World War II.

In step with “Kate Smith: A Bio-Bibliography,” the leisurely singer is credited with serving to sell $600 million in battle bonds all over the battle.

Bob Andron, 74, stated he believes persons are unfairly specializing within the 2 songs Smith performed early in her 20s when she became as soon as “making an strive to place her impress as a singer,” adding that Smith sang the pieces but did no longer write them.

“It’s somebody who stumbled on the words to 2 songs that she sang, out of 3,000 that she recorded, and tried to place a case out of it,” Bob Andron stated. “And my heart goes out to them, too. Because they’re misguided. They don’t perceive what create of a person Kate Smith became as soon as.”


Suzy Andron helped decide care of Smith in North Carolina sooner than she died and stated she never had any talks alongside with her aunt about those explicit songs.

She moreover strongly objected to the characterization that her aunt became as soon as as racist.

“[I’m] saddened that a girl who has been lifeless for nearly 35 years would possibly perhaps perhaps maybe be attacked in this potential,” she stated. “Aunt Kathryn actually did no longer discover coloration. She didn’t discover a person’s coloration. She became as soon as very in tune with a person’s persona. I’ve repeatedly thought that became as soon as a mannequin, to no longer discover a person’s coloration but to gape their persona.

“And for this reason I’m extremely sad.”

The Androns are unhappy that Smith’s insist won’t be heard at Yankee Stadium anymore, and hope followers will allege “God Bless The us” anyway.

“Folks can connect dots in diverse suggestions,” Bob Andron stated. “These of us — whoever they had been, bless them. They linked the unfriendly dots.”

This isn’t the first singer the Yankees hang minimize ties with. In 2009, the organizations stopped the use of singer Ronan Tynan, who had made slightly a couple of appearances at the Stadium to allege “God Bless The us,” after he became as soon as speculated to hang made anti-Semitic comments.