Kate Smith on AllMovie

Though she didn't speak a word until the age of four, Kate Smith made up for lost time by launching her stage career at age five with a Washington, D.C., church choir. Despite her parent's objections, she insisted upon remaining in show business and by age ten was singing for the WWI troops, earning a special commendation from General Pershing. The hefty young contralto made her Broadway debut as Tiny Little in Eddie Dowling's 1926 musical Honeymoon Lane. She then joined the cast of Flying High, in which she was subjected to a barrage of cruel and insulting "fat jokes" by leading man Bert Lahr. Record executive Ted Collins rescued her from this nightly public humiliation by taking Smith on as a client, and by 1931 she was starring in a popular four-a-week radio series for the CBS network. Signing on each evening with her signature theme "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain," she soon developed a huge fan following with her warm, easygoing style. Less popular was an attempt at film stardom in the 1933 vehicle Hello, Everybody, though her guest appearances in such films as The Big Broadcast (1933) and This is the Army (1943) were well received. She is undoubtedly most closely associated with Irving Berlin's patriotic ballad "God Bless America," which for all intents and purposes became her personal property after 1938. Billed as "the first lady of radio," her airwaves credits included the daytime talk show Kate Smith Speaks (1938-1947), in which she expounded extemporaneously on any number of topics, most optimistic in nature. On TV, she headlined two weekly series in 1951 and 1960. Curtailing her appearances after the death of her partner/mentor Ted Collins in 1964, Kate Smith retired completely in 1979; three years later, she received the coveted Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan (her co-star in This is the Army).