Louise Smith's Interview
Listen to and explore the curated OHMS index for Louise Smith's interview, created by Amanda Tuttle in Fall 2014.
Born and raised in North Carolina, Louise Smith (189?-n.d.), moved to Philadelphia after a railroad accident left her father unable to work when she was just fifteen. There, she labored as a domestic worker and joined East Calvary United Methodist Church, founded by Reverend Charles Albert Tindley, the city's most prominent and influential African American clergyman. Marriage took Smith to Baltimore during the First World War, but in the early 1920s she returned to Philadelphia, where she lived at 1522 Catharine Street for most of her life. When interviewed in 1984, Smith was one of the oldest living members of Tindley Temple.