Jack Gee

From Dupuis, Robert. "Smith, Bessie 1894–1937." Contemporary Black Biography. 1993. Encyclopedia.com. 16 May. 2015 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Lived and Sang the Blues

In spite of her commercial success, Bessie Smith’s personal life never strayed far from the blues theme. Her marriage to Jack Gee was stormy, punctuated by frequent fights and breakups despite their adoption of a son, Jack Gee, Jr., in 1926. Their nuptials ended in a bitter separation in 1929; Gee then attempted to keep the boy from Smith for years by moving him from one boarding home to another.

• http://www.afrigeneas.com/forumc/index.cgi/md/read/id/15923/sbj/jac...
• http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jack-gee-mn0000127224
  • "A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them," by Buzzy Jackson W. W. Norton & Company, 2005 Page 49)
  • Jack Gee's niece Ruby and his mother were both living in NY in 1922, the year he met Bessie.
    • Source 1: http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/bessiesmith/section3.rhtml
    • Source 2: "Bessie" by Christ Albertson, Yale University Press; Rev Exp edition (June 10, 2003) Page 30
• Bessie: Revised and expanded edition (2002) By Chris Albertson. Page 28. "John (better known as Jack) moved with his sister to Yonkers, New York from their family home in Virginia ..."
• Wedding License (transcribed) 7 day of June A.D. 1923. Orphan's Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (see "timeline" tab for full transcription)
• "Funeral of Bessie Smith" The Afro American, Oct 9, 1937. Bessie Smith Gee is survived by three sisters, Missss Lula, Tennie and Viola Smith; a husband, Jack Gee; a brother, Clarence Smith; and two nephews, Thomas Hill and Dolhin Smith .... Jack Gee quit show business in 1930 and now has a prosperous junk contracting business in New York City. He resides at 48 West 127th Street.
• Bessie: Revised and expanded edition (2002) By Chris Albertson. Page 258. "Jack Gee owned a laundromat in Philadelphia ... Died at the age of 84 on June 6, 1973; Jack, Jr., worked as a bartender in Philadelphia, where he died in the 1990s."
• More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Tennessee Women. By Susan Sawyer.  "Bessie Smith" (pages 111-115)