What year did Bessie Smith adopt her son Jack Gee Jr?

Answer 1

One of Bessie's chorus girls, Margaret Warren, had a niece who had a 5-year-old at the time-- 1925. When the topic of children came up, Margaret suggested that her niece would probably let Bessie adopt the boy. For the rest of the year Bessie, whenever she was in Macon,GA would stop to see the boy whom she called "Snooks". In the spring of 1926, Bessie said she was ready to adopt Snooks & wanted to take him with her for the rest of the tour she currently on. When she returned home to Philadelphia, she & Jack legally adopted the boy and named him Jack, Jr. By March/April 1929, Bessie & Jack had permanently separated and a divorced sometime during the 1930s apparently so that Jack could remarry. After Bessie died in 1937, Jack Senior continued to collect all of money that Bessie's estate would bring in. Jack, Jr. supposedly never received anything at all. In fact, Jack Senior kept Jack,Jr. a secret until the publication of Bessie's biography in 1972 revealed that Jack, Jr. was alive. Jack,Jr. remained unknown probably due to a well-designed secret by Jack Senior. After all, Jack Senior was not even married to Bessie when she died. So if no one knew about Jack, Jr. then all of Bessie's posthumous income would go to Jack Senior. Although this doesn't necessarily mean that Jack Senior was entitled, somehow he managed to pull it off for more than three decades. Bessie didn't even have a headstone for her grave for 33 years. Over the years some fundraisers had taken place but Jack Senior always kept the money for himself. In 1970, Juanita Green who as a girl had scrubbed Bessie's floors, along with the famous Janis Joplin and also a Columbia Records executive split the costs for Bessie's gravestone. Jack Senior died in 1975. Jack, Jr. sued his father's estate in 1979

Jack, Jr. was able to have his story included in a 2003 biography of Bessie.