Armstrong's 125th Birthday Coincides With Reissue of Daughter's Memoir

Sharon Preston-Folta, a Sarasota resident and voiceover artist, has reissued her memoir about growing up as the hidden daughter of Louis Armstrong. The new edition is published by St. Petersburg Press and arrives in the same year Armstrong would have turned 125.

Preston-Folta, born in 1955, was the daughter of Armstrong and Lucille "Sweets" Preston, a vaudeville dancer. Armstrong, who was married to another woman named Lucille, kept his relationship with Sweets and his daughter a private matter for decades. Although he never publicly acknowledged Sharon, he directed his manager to send monthly support payments and visited the family when his schedule allowed.

The original book, titled Little Satchmo: Living in the Shadow of My Father, Louis Daniel Armstrong, was self-published in 2012. That release came 41 years after the trumpeter's death in 1971. In 2024, a documentary adaptation of the memoir aired on PBS and won a Southeastern Emmy Award. Preston-Folta stated that the current reissue allows her to upgrade the presentation and connect the written work with the film.

The narrative details the family's life in the 1950s and 1960s. Sweets and her late husband, "Slim" Preston, performed as a dancing duo at Harlem's Cotton Club, where Armstrong also played. The two women and the bandleader toured together in package shows. In 1962, Armstrong purchased a house in Mount Vernon, N.Y., for the family. Preston-Folta writes that this purchase occurred during the twelfth year of her parents' relationship.

Armstrong left behind a collection of items that Preston-Folta preserved, including cards, letters, signed photographs, and cassette tapes. The tapes featured songs Armstrong selected for his daughter and mother, acting as their personal DJ. In one letter, he referred to Sharon as "Little Satchmo" and promised to cover her college education costs once she finished high school.

Preston-Folta described the writing process as cathartic. She noted that the secrecy surrounding her birth led to feelings of shame and anger during her youth. "The universal story is forgiveness, and owning the experience without the shame," she said. "Because as a child, when you look at these things, you just don't know how to process them."

Her mother, who died in 2020 at age 98, initially opposed the book. Sweets Preston believed Sharon had been well taken care of and that the story would invite judgment. "You were well taken care of, she said. Your father provided for you. I provided for you," Preston-Folta recalled. The younger woman argued that owning her legacy was important so the secret would not pass to her grandchildren.

Sweets Preston later attended book and film appearances with Sharon. Preston-Folta observed that the public embraced her mother rather than criticizing her. "People were happy to meet her. She lived to know people enjoyed the story," she said. In the original edition, the book ended with a letter to Armstrong. The reissue concludes with a letter to Sweets Preston.

Preston-Folta previously worked as an Account Executive at WUSF for nine years and holds a BA in Communication Arts from Ioana University. She attempted a legal claim to her heritage but the effort did not result in a settlement. Lucille Armstrong, the jazz legend's fourth wife, died in 1983 and had signed a document stating her husband had fathered no children. Preston-Folta said she gained an intellectual understanding of why she was not acknowledged. "By taking action, and not allowing it to silence me, I worked through the hurt," she explained.