Singer Kate Smith Eulogized at Mass

About 200 people mourned singer Kate Smith at a funeral Mass on Thursday, and a priest recalled the “almost perfect, bell-like quality of her voice” that he said was a gift from God.

“No one ever had any difficulty in understanding every word that she had to sing,” Msgr. James McSweeney told those gathered at Our Lady of Lourdes church.

Smith, who popularized the patriotic song “God Bless America,” died Tuesday of respiratory failure. She was 79.

Her singing career spanned 50 years, until she lapsed into a diabetic coma in 1976 and was left with speech and walking difficulties. Diabetes caused the amputation of her right leg above the knee in January, and she underwent a mastectomy on May 9.

“What heaven has gained, we have individually lost. . . . I remember thrilling to her voice,” McSweeney said. “Everything was plain, in that almost perfect, bell-like quality of her voice that has been so much a part of our lives.”

Her body was to be flown to Washington for a funeral Mass on Saturday, with burial in Lake Placid, N.Y.