Sandra Jaffe, a renowned figure in the New Orleans jazz scene who cofounded Preservation Hall with her husband Allan in 1961, died on December 27. She was 83.

Sandra Smolen was born on March 10, 1938, to Russian immigrant parents and raised in public housing in Philadelphia. She graduated from Harcum College in 1958 where she studied journalism and public relations. She spent two years working at a Philadelphia-based advertising agency while attending classes at the University of Pennsylvania in the evenings. She met Allan Jaffe at an outdoor play in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. The couple soon married and drove to Mexico City where they would live for a year.

In 1961, on the return from Mexico to Philadelphia, the Jaffes made a detour through New Orleans. Allan had been stationed at Fort Polk in western Louisiana in the years prior to meeting Sandra and would visit New Orleans on weekend leave where he would sate his passion for jazz.

“He told me all about how lovely the French Quarter was, and that I absolutely had to see this place—that I would love it,” Sandra said in an interview with Patches, the alumni magazine of Harcum College.

The couple engaged in conversation with musicians who were performing in Jackson Square and were invited to a French Quarter venue known as “Mr. Larry’s Gallery” at 726 St. Peter Street. Larry Borenstein, a jazz aficionado, operated an art gallery in a 19th-century Creole townhouse and felt deprived of live music due his business obligations. He invited traditional jazz musicians to perform “rehearsal sessions” in the gallery, which drew the likes of such living legends as George Lewis, Punch Miller, Sweet Emma Barrett, Billie and De De Pierce, The Humphrey Brothers and dozens more. At the time, traditional jazz had begun to fade in popularity as rock ‘n’ roll and bebop became the rage. By the 1950s, Borenstein’s gallery was among the few venues where traditional jazz was performed in the city that given birth to the music.

Sandra and Allan Jaffe. Photo courtesy of Preservation Hall

Sandra recalled her introduction to the scene in a blog post on the Preservation Hall website: “When I heard the music for the first time, it felt like a total transformation. We found this whole new world … the music was just so wonderful.”

Fortuitously, the Jaffes opted to extend their stay in New Orleans, which led to a life-altering opportunity mere days into their vacation. Borenstein told the Jaffes that they were welcome to take over operations of the music performances while he moved his art gallery next door.

“We didn’t even think about it,” said Sandra in the article for Patches. “It wasn’t even a thought. ‘Of course,’ we said, and that was the beginning of Preservation Hall. We never left New Orleans.”

Preservation Hall officially opened in the summer of 1961 and the venue began booking retired jazz musicians a few nights a week, with a schedule that eventually expanded to every night of the year save for a few holidays. Allan Jaffe, a jazz tubist, would form the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which began touring nationally and internationally beginning in 1963.

New Orleans was in the throes of racial upheaval at the time of the Hall’s opening. The Hall’s website notes that “Preservation Hall was a rare space in the South where racially-integrated bands and audiences shared music together during the Jim Crow era. At the center of that family business, the Jaffe’s became involved in the southern civil rights movement (and were even persecuted) as heads of an integrated venue in a time of cruelly-policed racial segregation.”

Allan Jaffe died on March 6, 1987. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is currently led by second son, Ben Jaffe.

In 2006, Sandra and Ben were invited to the White House where President George W. Bush conferred a National Medal of Arts upon Preservation Hall. The citation reads, “With enormous talent and pride, this ageless ensemble has toured the world displaying the unbreakable spirit of New Orleans and sharing the joy of New Orleans jazz with us all.”

In 2017 Ben Jaffe wrote a tribute to his mother that was posted to the Hall’s website in honor of International Women’s Day: “My mother is a strong, powerful, defiant, intelligent human. She has strong beliefs and convictions. Night after night, for years, she sat at the entrance to Preservation Hall collecting the entrance fee. In other words, she was the hostess and the bouncer! And things could be tense.

“When confronted or tested, my mother does not back down. I have heard stories of her standing down rowdy drunk sailors or confronting disrespectful members of the audience which often led to them being tossed out of the Hall by the collar of their shirts! Any chance she had she would remove the ‘Colored’ signs on public bathrooms and toss them in the Mississippi River. She’s the daughter of a Russian immigrant that found her way to New Orleans in 1961 and became part of the movement that gave birth to one of the worlds great musical institutions: Preservation Hall. She is an inspiration to all…”

Sandra Jaffe is survived by two sons, Russell and Ben, two sisters, Brenda Epstein and Resa Lambert, and four grandchildren. Funeral services will be private but a memorial service will be held when pandemic conditions allow for a large gathering.

This story will continue to be updated.