Everyone in Sharon Preston-Folta’s family, elders to grandkids, knew that her father was Louis Armstrong, the legendary jazz musician affectionately known as Satchmo.
But it stayed a secret for decades, because Armstrong was a married man, and the woman he was married to wasn’t Sharon’s mother, vaudeville dancer Lucille “Sweets” Preston.
Sharon clung to every scrap of memory the man known to the world as Satchmo left her and her mom – cards, letters, signed photographs and cassette tapes with songs he wanted mother and daughter to hear, with him acting as their personal DJ.
In 2012, 41 years after Armstrong’s death, she self-published a memoir, "Little Satchmo: Living in the Shadow of My Father, Louis Daniel Armstrong." Twelve years after that, it was adapted into a documentary film, which aired on PBS and won a Southeastern Emmy Award.
(Armstrong, in a letter, lovingly referred to Sharon as Little Satchmo.)
The book has been updated and reissued by St. Petersburg Press. “And, it turns out, this is the year of my father’s 125th birthday,” says Preston-Folta, a longtime resident of Sarasota. “So it was a great opportunity to re-publish the story, tie it in with the documentary, and really upgrade the presentation.”
The story makes for a sad but ultimately inspiring read. “Sweets” and her late husband “Slim” Preston often appeared as a dancing duo at Harlem’s Cotton Club, where Armstrong also performed. They toured as part of package shows with him.
Sharon’s widowed mother began her affair with the great bandleader and trumpet player in the early ‘50s, and Sharon was born on June 24, 1955.
Although he never openly acknowledged his daughter, Armstrong directed his manager to send monthly support payments. He visited when he could, and they sometimes joined his entourage for concerts in the New York area.
Even as a little girl, she knew very well who he was, and looked forward to his visits.
Dear Sweets,
… Give Sharon a big kiss. Tell her if she’s forgotten ol Satchmo, I don’t blame her. I feel, she’s too young to understand. Regardless, I love her and am saving money especially for her college education. Whatever college she wishes to go to I’ve got her covered. All she have to do is finish high school and that’s where I step in.
In November 1962, Armstrong bought them a house in Mount Vernon, New York. It was, Preston-Folta writes, the 12th year of their affair.
Throughout, her mother was confident Armstrong would leave his (fourth) wife, also named Lucille, and marry her. He’d said as much during their frequent, intimate moments in Harlem and Mount Vernon.
It never happened. Armstrong died in 1971, still famous and still married.
Writing "Little Satchmo," Preston-Folta says, was cathartic.
“The universal story is forgiveness, and owning the experience without the shame. Because as a child, when you look at these things, you just don’t know how to process them. So you compare yourself to others. And when you have a family that looks like no other, you feel out of place.
“So the secrecy led to the shame, because I had so many questions that weren’t answered.
“Of course, the anger of living that life, and then trying to make my own life, in my 20s, you get to as stage where you realize, this is the life I have, holding onto that is not hurting them, it’s hurting me. And so the work really starts in moving on.”
Her mother, who died in 2020 at age 98, had at first been furious that her daughter was planning to tell the story. Recalls Preston-Folta: “You were well taken care of, she said. Your father provided for you. I provided for you. You had a good life, and you have a good life now – you’re successful.
“I said but that doesn’t take away from me owning my legacy, and holding a secret that I didn’t choose to hold. And at this stage of my life, I was a grandmother, and I didn’t want that legacy to pass on to my grandchildren.
Preston-Folta believes her mother was afraid she’d be judged.
“And it didn’t turn out to be bad. People embraced her. She came to some of the (book and film) appearances with me, and people were happy to meet her. She lived to know people enjoyed the story – and if they judged her, they treated her well. She did not get the criticism that she thought she would.”
In the original publication of "Little Satchmo," Preston-Folta closed with a letter to her father. “In the republication, I end with a letter to my mother.”
After earning bachelor's degree in communication arts from Iona University, she launched a career in media and eventually relocated to Sarasota.
In the end, no regrets. She did attempt to pursue a legal claim to her heritage, but it came to nothing. Lucille Armstrong, who once signed a document stating her late husband had fathered no children, died in 1983. There’s not much of an estate left to argue with.
“Working through the book, I gained an intellectual understanding of why they did not acknowledge me,” Preston-Folta explains. “By taking action, and not allowing it to silence me, I worked through the hurt.”
Editor's note: Preston-Folta previously worked an account executive at WUSF for nine years and currently works as a consultant and a voiceover artist.
