Unexpectedly, I came across a set of a beautiful brooch and earrings, which had been donated to the AJM by the Haesler family, who had inherited them from Angela Child, the wife of the radio pioneer Eric Child.

The jewellery had actually belonged to Lucille Armstrong, the beautiful (fourth) wife of Louis Armstrong, and the story goes that at a dinner at the Child’s Sydney home Lucille gave Angela her own brooch and earrings, after Angela had admired them, quite innocently.

Eric had met Lucille in London while she was in the Blackbirds stage production at the Gaiety Theatre and they had remained friends.

I wanted to know more about Lucille, as everybody knows that behind a great man is usually a very interesting woman.

Lucille was born in the Bronx in 1914 in a very comfortable family, who became ruined by the financial crash of the 1930’s.

She studied piano and dance as a child and started as a professional dancer at the Alhambra Theatre in Harlem. Later on she danced on Broadway and then in the Chorus Line at The Cotton Club, under the name of Brown Sugar, where she met Louis.

On meeting her, Louis Armstrong said: “When I first saw her in the line at the Cotton Club, she was the darkest girl on the line. Lucille was the first black girl to crack the high yellow or brown bag colour standard that was used to pick girls for the Chorus”.

They married a few years later, in 1942 in Saint Louis and Lucille gave up her career to devote her life to being Mrs Louis Armstrong.