Ludlow "Luddy" Smith

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Ludlow Ogden Smith

Also Known As: "Luddy"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Pennsylvania Turnpike, Somerset, PA, United States
Death: July 13, 1979 (80)
Immediate Family:

Son of Lewis Lawrence Smith and Gertrude Gouverneur Smith
Husband of Elisabeth Ludlow
Ex-husband of Katharine Hepburn
Father of Private and Private
Brother of Lewis Gouverneur Smith and Lawrence Meredith Clemson Smith

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Immediate Family

About Ludlow "Luddy" Smith

Ludlow Ogden Smith was a Philadelphia businessman. He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Hepburn traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity. A rumor persists that the change was made at Hepburn's request so that she would not be known as "Kate Smith" (a popular singer of the time) but this appears to be one of many Hepburn legends. Fearing that the Mexican divorce may not have been legal, Ludlow secured a divorce in Connecticut on September 18, 1941 in anticipation of his remarriage.

Despite their divorce, they remained on good terms, with Ludlow even financing the Broadway play The Philadelphia Story in 1939 to help restart Hepburn's then-flagging career. (Howard Hughes, in turn, then helped Hepburn to purchase the rights to the play for the MGM film version in 1940.) She later wrote about him and their marriage in her memoir Me.

Ludlow was president of Ogden Ludlow Inc. and the creator of the "Ludlow Formula", a precursor to computerized systems in financial institutions.

Source: Wikipedia https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38963203/ludlow-ogden-smith https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LHQ7-QD5

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Ludlow "Luddy" Smith's Timeline

1899
February 6, 1899
Pennsylvania Turnpike, Somerset, PA, United States
1979
July 13, 1979
Age 80
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