Jack Gee was the husband of Bessie Smith also known as the ‘Empress of the Blues’. Jack was born on the 7th of March 1989 in Virginia, United States of America. Bessie Smith was an American Blues singer who was born on the 15th of April 1894. She was well known as a popular female blues singer during the Jazz era and was regarded as one of the best singers of her time.
Jack Gee made it to the spotlight when he got into a relationship with Bessie Smith. This relationship led to marriage and Jack Gee became Mr. Bessie Smith. However, their marriage faced so much turbulence and eventually crashed under the weight of their incessant issues.
About Their Troubled Marriage
Jack Gee was a night watchman also known as a Policeman when he met Bessie Smith in the 1920s. Prior to this meet and relationship with Jack Gee, Smith was married to a man reported to be named Earl Love who died sometime in 1920.
However, after Smith had her first recording deal with Columbia Records, she and Jack got married. Jack began to help his wife’s career and took up certain responsibilities calling himself her manager. While Bessie’s fame rapidly grew, so did her fortune and Jack fell in love with her money and wealth.
Nonetheless, the couple was recklessly unfaithful. Bessie Smith was a bi-sexual who had a series of affairs with both men and women. While on the road, Smith was known to engage in several affairs with both sexes but tried to hide it. Her husband on the other hand, nonetheless, reciprocated with his own affair.
Not only was Bessie an unfaithful wife, but she also had drinking issues. Jack too was no saint either as he was a gambler. They had a very toxic relationship as they argued and fought often and then topped it up with infidelity.
Bessie was said to have been in a relationship with a woman named Lucille who could be said to be a composite of two women. One of the women was Ruby Walker with whom Bessie had a very close friendship and relationship. The other woman is reported to be Lillian Simpson who worked as one of Smith’s chorus girls.
While Bessie had a lot of affairs with different people, her husband on the other hand was, for the best part of his infidelity, associated with one woman. Jack Gee was associated with a woman known as Gertrude Saunders. Gertrude was also an American singer, actress, and comedian.
Some Other Must-Know Facts About Jack Gee
1. How He Finally Caught Bessie
She was known to also be a voyeur whenever she was out of town. She regularly visited privately owned clubs that offered all sorts of entertainment. Jack was told about this but he never really caught her in the act.
Also given how discreet Bessie Smith was about her affairs, Jack Gee was unable to catch her in the act until one time. Bessie was having an intimate session with one of her dancers named Marie and Jack caught her in the act.
However, given that Jack wasn’t so faithful either, this wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back on their relationship. Their relationship only ended after Smith found out that Jack had been using her money to fund his infidelity. She realized that Gee spent the money for her show on producing the show for his mistress, Gertrude. This was what led to the end of the toxic marriage between Jack Gee and Bessie Smith.
2. He Moved On With Gertrude Saunders
After the separation from Bessie Smith, Jack moved on and in with his mistress, Saunders. The marriage with Smith ended on a terrible note but neither sought a divorce. They both moved on with their lives, at least Bessie tried to. Ex Mr. Smith then continued his relationship with Gertrude and moved in with her.
3. Jack Tried To Ruin Bessie’s Life
Even after the separation, Jack still tried so many ways to frustrate Bessie’s life. One of the things he did was to prevent his niece, Ruby Walker who was Smith’s closest friend at the time from working and seeing Smith.
Ruby was said to have either been forced or manipulated to stop seeing and working with Bessie Smith. Furthermore, Jack made Ruby work on Gertrude Saunders’ show instead. Ruby herself, in a statement to Bessie’s autobiographer, stated these.
Like this wasn’t enough, Jack also forcefully took away Bessie Smith’s adopted son named after him. Jack Gee kidnapped Jack Gee Jr. and took him to the office of the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Gee laid false claims of neglect and child endangerment against Bessie to the SPCC. He succeeded in making Jack Jr. move from several homes and even when he tried to escape back to his mother, he was always found by Jack Gee Sr. and made to endure worse treatment.
Finally, after years of being estranged from his adopted mother, Bessie who had been desolate from losing him, they were reunited. With Jack Jr. going back to Bessie, he was kept under the care of Bessie’s elder sister, Viola.
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4. Jack Gee Never Got Along With Bessie’s Elder Sister
Jack Gee and Bessie Smith’s elder sister, Viola never saw eye to eye. They both had resentment for each other. Bessie made an arrangement that her husband at the time, Jack Gee, wouldn’t have access to her money except with the signature of Viola.
This arrangement infuriated Jack Gee who at this point was barely struggling to keep up with Viola. In the same vein, Viola was not fond of Jack. Given that she was a sad and angry person almost all the time, it probably wasn’t a weird feeling.
5. Jack Gee’s Death
The ex-husband of Bessie Smith, the ‘Empress of the Blues’, died on Monday the 4th of June 1973. He died in his Philadelphia home at the age of 84. His wife, however, died in the early hours of September 27th 1937 after a double car collision severely caused trauma and damage to her. Bessie Smith died at the age of 43.
