Bessie Smith died.
"Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia a little over a week later, on October 4, 1937
 Salinger, and the 1959 play The Death of Bessie Smith, by Edward Albee, are based on Smith's life and death, but poetic license was taken by both authors; for instance, Albee's play distorts the circumstances of her medical treatment, or lack of it, before her death, attributing it to racist medical practitioners

