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Vol. 1
Louis Armstrongs
Golden Horn Stilled
Louis “Satchmo”
Armstrong, beloved
troubadour of the jazz
trumpet, with a delightful rasp
to his voice and roll to his eye,
died Tuesday, his heart worn
out, his golden horn silent at
last. He was 71 years old on
Sunday.
“Me and my horn, we come
a long way together,”
Armstrong once observed.
Together, they came out of
a waif s refuge in New Orleans,
up river to Chicago alortg the
trail of jazz itself, then on to
the show business pinnacles of
New York and Las Vegas, and
the motion picture studios of
Hollywood.
And before they were
through, Armstrong and his
horn, together, had fascinated
millions on five of the earth’s
continents, enthralling royalty
along with the humblest of jazz
fans.
Armstrong and his horn
pierced even the Iron Curtain,
as he became one of the best
ambassadors the United States
ever sent abroad, a
representative of democracy
whose portfolio’s contents, in
his words, “ain’t politics, it’s
just music.”
“In Africa,” Armstrong once
reminisced, “the local tribe
carried in their chief to where I
was playing. All he did was just
look down and say just one
word, “Satchmo!’ Man, they
knew me even out there.”
1 But ill health made
progressive inroads on the
1 ebullient artist with the
unforgetable grimace and grin.
He was in and out of hospitals
during the past five years, as
liver and kidney ailments took
their toll on his heart.
Early Tuesday at his home
in Queens, Armstrong died
peacefully in his sleep. A
family spokesman said his tired
heart simply gave out.
President Nixon was aloft in
Air Force One en route from
Washington to Kansas City
when he was informed of
Armstrong’s death. He said in a
statement:
“Mrs. Nixon and I know the
sorrow of millions of
Americans at the death of
Louis Armstrong. One of the
architects of an American art
form, a free and independent
spirit and an artist of world
wide fame, his great talents.and
magnificent spirit added
richness and pleasure to all our
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CELEBRITY OF THE WEEK
Mrs. Hattie P. Smith of 403 Hamburg Road, North Augusta,
South Carolina is employed as a seamstress at Schwobilt Clothes,
in Augusta, where she has worked since 1958. She and her
husband Daniel are very proud of their four children; Dr. Thomas
E. Smith is a professor at the University of California', Mary Ellen
Terrell is a teacher in the Richmond County School System;
Harriet L. Brown is a biologist at the Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology at Walter Reed Hospital, and Charles F. Smith Director
of Academic Skills Clinic at Paine College.
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WE COME A LONG WAY TOGETHER’
Louis Armstrong, sporting one of his typical smiles, is shown in his New York
home recently.
lives.”
Survivors included
Armstrong’s third wife, Lucille
Wilson Armstrong, whom he
married in 1942, and a sister
and two half-brothers.
F u neral services were
scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at
the Corona Congregational
church at 34th Avenue and
103rd Street in Corona
Queens. Burial will be in a
Flushing Cemetery.
Armstrong’s last public
appearance was at the Waldorf
Astoria Hotel here, where he
opened a two-week
engagement March 1. From
there, he went to Beth Israel
Hospital for heart treatment.
At the time, he was
described as frail, with halting
gait, his 5-feet-6 figure wasted
down from 226 pounds to 125.
To thank the many admirers
who had relayed best wished to
930 Gwinnett St.
him in the hospital, Armstrong
gave an interview at his home
June 23. He played his trumpet
and pronounced, “I’m going
back to work.”
He never made it.
“I loved him, God bless
him,” said Duke Ellington,
himself a towering figure in
American jazz. “It is a great
loss to all of us.”
Said pianist Earl “Fatha”
Hines who took his style from
Armstrong’s trumpet style.
“The world has lost a
champion. I don’t know who is
going to follow a man like
that.”
“I know all New Yorkers
join Mrs. Lindsay and me in
extending our heartfelt
sympathy to Mrs. Armstrong,”
said Mayor John V. Lindsay.
It was on the Fourth of July
1900, that Armstrong was born
in New Orleans. His parents
separated when he was 5 and
he grew up on the streets of
the city. Like many jazz greats
before him, he started out
entertaining for pennies in the
redlight section of New
Orleans.
Cornetist Bunk Johnson
gave Armstrong his first real
musical training. But
Satchmo’s development as
trumpeter without peer began
during a year’s incarceration in
the New Orleans Waifs Home.
He was sent there after
shooting off some blank
cartridges on New Year’s Eve,
1913.
In the home, Armstrong was
encouraged to play the bugle
and cornet and after his release
he gained a further musical
education from the famed King
Oliver.
There followed engagements
on Mississippi excursion boats,
and dance halls, with
Armstrong eventually
abandoning the cornet for the
trumpet.
Then, at the age of 22,
Armstrong was called to
Chicago to join the band of his
onetime mentor, Oliver. The
THE PEOPLE’S PAPER
Augusta Ga Phone 722-4555
Editorial
A MESSAGE TO THE CHRONICLE-HERALD
It was indeed distressing to see you single out Paine College
students in the editorials “Lack of basic courtesy and
“Discreditable Performance.”
Needless to say we object to discourtesy by anyone, any
where, in any form. We also object to seeing Black students
singled out when the “discourtesy” that that they exemplified at
a political gathering is part of a national pattern.
Have you forgotten how whites booed President Johnson when
he campaigned in Augusta? You said that the conduct of the
Paine students would have been objectionable even from a crowd
of illiterate idlers, but that the community has the right to expect
something more from those preparing themselves as models of
community leadership. Have you forgotten the Democratic and
Republican conventions where whites, who were not illiterate
idlers, not students preparing to be models of community
leadership, but rather, college graduates, already in leadership
roles, delegates on a national level, conducted themselves like
idiots?
If you had been knowledgeable of the audience you so bitterly
attacked, you would have known that a great many of the
students in that audience were high school students participating
in the summer Upward Bound program at Paine College.
Presumably you did not realize this in your eager attempt to
bring discredit to Paine students.
And your charges of racism certainly smack of that same
racism that you claim to deplore.
It seems beyond your comprehension that Blacks could favor
the Black candidates for sheriff over the white candidates on
anything other than a racial basis.
Are you not aware of how Blacks have suffered at the hands of
white police in America? Can you not comprehend the anguished
wish of Blacks to see a sheriff who is going to treat them justly?
Can you not see that they would naturally have more confidence
in one of their own in this regard?
This “discourtesy” was a reaction against years of systematic
white racism.
We are certainly glad that you have grown to the point where
you deplore racism; particularly since ten years ago you printed
Black news in a separate section of your newspaper entitled
“News of Interest to our Colored Readers.
But that was not discourtesy, was it? Certainly not worth
editorializing about. That was just plain old segregation, socially
acceptable and part of a national pattern.
Windy City proved
Armstrong’s gateway to the
world.
Before a performance,
Armstrong would gargle and
salve his lips. Then, beautifully
tailored, he would move into
the spotlight, grinning, rolling
■ ■■ ■
W. A. ANDERSON
ANDERSON,TEBOW IN
RUNOFF FOR SHERIFF
A field of six candidates,
including .wo Blacks,
campaigned for the post,
splitting votes which resulted
in the runoff between the two
deputies.
Anderson, running as a
Republican, has been with the
Sheriffs Dept, nine years and
his eyes and coaxing notes of
crystal beauty from his horn.
One of his greatest hits was
“Sleepy Time Down South.”
And in later years, he
appropriated the theme song
from the Broadway smash,
“Hello, Dolly!” He made it his
is currently an iwestigator
Tebow, running on the
by Precinct
PLACES O ANDERSON CROSS JOHNSON TEBOW WIDENER WILLIAMSON
Ist Ward 198 66 37 290 223 24
2nd Ward 149 161 42 197 302 23
3rd Ward 584 120 32 550 346 60
4th Ward 167 204 42 250 344 47
sth Ward 395 7 3 509 162 60
6th Ward 1073 9 3 453 173 35
7th Ward 861 37 12 364 260 40
Bth Ward 1009 32 8 218 224 21
ABSENTEE 308 8 1 256 95 9
119-1 335 7 3 204 159 12
H 9-2 504 24 7 447 331 17
H 9-3 264 38 14 269 203 8
I2i 24 1 9 I® B 99 *
123-1 131 34 4 337 78 7
123-2 67 87 84 72 165 9
123-3 169 8 2 223 63 9
123-4 360 4 2 472 129 13
123-5 355 5 0 596 113 11
123-6 406 4 0 446 103 9
123-7 178 117 33 349 301 14
124 21 3 0 241 10 3
1269-1 806 2 1 157 8:5 17
1269-2 651 5 0 252 103 20
1269-3 791 9 2 270 126 13
1269-4 1011 14 0 139 96 8
1269-5 81 0 0 141 35 5
1434 103 7 2 299 55 7
1660 95 5 1 256 56 0
1760 34 1 2 71 16 0
TOTALS 11,119 1019 341 8434 4423 502
own gravelly vocal trademark,
and it sold over a million
records.
Armstrong first went abroad
in 1932 and before his travels
ended he had performed in
Europe, Africa, Asia and
Australia. In 1934, he played
for King George V of Britain,
and broke up the audience by
dedicating a number to the
king with the breezy remark:
“This one’s for you, Rex.”
Never a militant type,
Armstrong was performing
abroad during the Selma, Ala.,
march in the mid-1960. He said
at the time:
“Maybe I’m not in the front
line, but I support them with
my donations. But maybe that
is not enough now. My life is
music. They would beat me in
the mouth if I marched and
without my mouth I would not
be able to blow my horn.”
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JOHN R. TEBOW
Democratic ticket, is a 20-year
veteran with the Sheriffs Dept.
As the years rolled by,
Armstrong became one of the
U.S. State Department’s most
valuable assets. The
department was to be
represented at his funeral.
“His death is a loss to
millions of people throughout
the world,” State Department
press officer Charles Bray said
in Washington.
“His memory will be
enshrined in the archives of
effective international
communications. The State
Department for which he
traveled to every center of the
globe mourns the parting of
this great American.”
Satchmo once put it
succintly, this worldwide
appeal of his.
“Cats are the same
everywhere - all over the
world,” he observed. “They all
talk the same language. They
all dig me and my horn.
July 8, 1971 No. 16
and currently holds the rank of
traffic captain.
Commissioners
Presented
Proclamation
At Tuesday’s meeting of the
Richmond County
Commission, each
commissioner was presented a
copy of the Proclamation of
Baha’u’llah, by Dr. Richard
Bauman, Emory Giles and
Anthony Scimeca, all members
of the Baha’i faith.
In presenting the
proclamation, Dr. Bauman said
that the proclamation
emphasized the oneness of
mankind and the establishment
of justice for all people across
the earth.
He told the commissioners
that “in your work, harmony
and co-operation of all people
has to be a high priority on the
agenda at all times.
We join you in your efforts
to achieve unity at all times
among all people.”