Louis Armstrong Dixieland Anthology : Work information - Work
name - Louis Armstrong Dixieland Anthology - Work number -
Recording date (Daniel) Louis Armstrong Armstrong often stated
in public interviews that he was born on July 4, 1900
(Independence Day in the USA), a date that has been noted in
many biographies. Although he died in 1971, it wasn't until the
mid-1980s that his true birth date of August 4, 1901 was
discovered through the examination of baptismal records. He was
recorded as an out of wedlock black child. Armstrong was born
into a very poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, the grandson
of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty in a rough neighborhood
of Uptown New Orleans, known as “Back of Town”, as his father,
William Armstrong (1881–1922), abandoned the family when Louis
was an infant, and took up with another woman. His mother, Mary
Albert Armstrong (1886–1942), then left Louis and his younger
sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903–1987) in the care of his
grandmother, Josephine Armstrong