Louis Armstrong died in his sleep on July 6, 1971, of a heart attack at his home in the Corona section of Queens, New York. He had observed his 71st birthday two days prior on July 4.
Tributes poured in from around the world.
President Nixon released this statement: “Mrs. Nixon and I share the sorrow of millions of Amer icans at the death of Louis Armstrong. One of the archi tects of an American art form, a free and individual spirit, and an artist of worldwide fame, his great talents and magnificent spirit added rich ness and pleasure to all our lives.”
Duke Ellington commented: “If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis. Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original.”
In an obituary for The New York Times, Albin Krebs wrote, “Just watching an Armstrong performance could he an ex hilarating experience. The man radiated a jollity that was infectious. Onstage he would, bend back his stocky frame, point his trumpet to the heavens and joyfully blast out high, C’s. When he sang he fairly bubbled with pleasure. And as he swabbed away at the per spiration stirred up by his per forming exertions, Satchmo grinned his famous toothy smile so incandescently that it seemed to light up the auditorium.”
NBC Nightly News, hosted by John Chancellor, included a photo essay of Armstrong accompanied by tradtional jazz funeral music.
On July 10, 1971, The New York Times covered the funeral service at the Corona Congregational Church: “Louis Armstrong was given a fond and nostalgic farewell yesterday at a funeral service in Corona, Queens, that shunned the high notes and display of the jazz funerals of New Orleans, where his celebrated horn first was heard … ‘Move over, Gabriel, here comes Satchmo,’ said Fred Robbins, a disk jockey and close friend of the musician who delivered the principal eulogy.
“Peggy Lee, the singer, did come from California to sing ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ in a voice so soft and solemn that it was momentarily lost in the distant rumble of a jet taking off from La Guardia Airport. A gospel singer named Hugh Porter, whom none of the jazz musicians present at the service seemed to recognize, knelt near the coffin and sang, ‘Just a Closer Walk With Thee.’
“And Al Nibbler sang ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’ and, concluding the service, ‘When, the Saints Go Marching In.’ It was then that the only faint suggestion of a horn was heard. A Ghanaian musician, who identified him self later as Little Joe Ayesu, stood up at a corner of the pulpit and started echoing the singer on a kazoo but was promptly told by an usher to stop.”
