Ludlow Ogden Smith was a Philadelphia businessman. Ludlow was president of Ogden Ludlow Inc. and the creator of the "Ludlow Formula", a precursor to computerized systems in financial institutions.
He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Kate traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity. A rumor persists that the change was made at Hepburn's request so that she would not be known as "Kate Smith" (Kate Smith was a popular singer of the time) but this appears to be one of many Hepburn legends. Fearing that the Mexican divorce may not have been legal, Ludlow secured a divorce in Connecticut on September 18, 1941 in anticipation of his remarriage.
After his divorce, Ludlow married Elisabeth Albers and they had two children, a son Lewis Gouverneur Ludlow and a daughter Katharine Ramsey Ludlow.
Despite their divorce, they remained on good terms, with Ludlow even financing the stage play of The Philadelphia Story in 1939 to help restart Hepburn's then-flagging career. She later wrote about him and their marriage in her memoir Me.
Katharine Hepburn's relationship with Ludlow was one of the most enduring of her life.
Following Katharine's death in June, Ludlow's family decided to set the record straight about the couple they had known as Luddy and Kate. Although they divorced in the early 1930s, and for many years Katharine denied the marriage had even taken place, they never lost touch, and after Spencer Tracy's death and that of Ludlow's second wife, they resumed their relationship, remaining close until Ludlow's death.
When Ludlow fell ill with cancer, Katharine visited him every weekend on her way to her weekend home at Fenwick, and again on the way back. She continued to visit him every weekend when he went into hospital. "One day, he called my mother from the hospital," Morris says. "He said, ‘Kate and I are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary'."
In 1991, when the family turned their Georgian House at Collen Brook into the Smith-Lewis Local History Museum, Hepburn - though frail by then - lent her prestige to the project. Now a display is planned to mark the lives of the remarkable women of Collen Brook: Helen Smith Brinton, the first American woman to study at Oxford, Gertrude Gouverneur Clemson Smith, chairman of the Women's Suffragettes for the State of Pennsylvania, Eleanor Houston Smith (Morris' mother), a great conservationist - and another strong woman of the Smith family, Katharine Houghton Hepburn.
Alongside her in the exhibition will stand Ludlow Ogden Smith, her devoted husband, whose support and security helped launch her career and to whom she returned in her later years. Now both are dead, he will be at last acknowledged as the other great love of her life.
He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Kate traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity. A rumor persists that the change was made at Hepburn's request so that she would not be known as "Kate Smith" (Kate Smith was a popular singer of the time) but this appears to be one of many Hepburn legends. Fearing that the Mexican divorce may not have been legal, Ludlow secured a divorce in Connecticut on September 18, 1941 in anticipation of his remarriage.
After his divorce, Ludlow married Elisabeth Albers and they had two children, a son Lewis Gouverneur Ludlow and a daughter Katharine Ramsey Ludlow.
Despite their divorce, they remained on good terms, with Ludlow even financing the stage play of The Philadelphia Story in 1939 to help restart Hepburn's then-flagging career. She later wrote about him and their marriage in her memoir Me.
Katharine Hepburn's relationship with Ludlow was one of the most enduring of her life.
Following Katharine's death in June, Ludlow's family decided to set the record straight about the couple they had known as Luddy and Kate. Although they divorced in the early 1930s, and for many years Katharine denied the marriage had even taken place, they never lost touch, and after Spencer Tracy's death and that of Ludlow's second wife, they resumed their relationship, remaining close until Ludlow's death.
When Ludlow fell ill with cancer, Katharine visited him every weekend on her way to her weekend home at Fenwick, and again on the way back. She continued to visit him every weekend when he went into hospital. "One day, he called my mother from the hospital," Morris says. "He said, ‘Kate and I are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary'."
In 1991, when the family turned their Georgian House at Collen Brook into the Smith-Lewis Local History Museum, Hepburn - though frail by then - lent her prestige to the project. Now a display is planned to mark the lives of the remarkable women of Collen Brook: Helen Smith Brinton, the first American woman to study at Oxford, Gertrude Gouverneur Clemson Smith, chairman of the Women's Suffragettes for the State of Pennsylvania, Eleanor Houston Smith (Morris' mother), a great conservationist - and another strong woman of the Smith family, Katharine Houghton Hepburn.
Alongside her in the exhibition will stand Ludlow Ogden Smith, her devoted husband, whose support and security helped launch her career and to whom she returned in her later years. Now both are dead, he will be at last acknowledged as the other great love of her life.
Ludlow Ogden Smith was a Philadelphia businessman. Ludlow was president of Ogden Ludlow Inc. and the creator of the "Ludlow Formula", a precursor to computerized systems in financial institutions.
He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Kate traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity. A rumor persists that the change was made at Hepburn's request so that she would not be known as "Kate Smith" (Kate Smith was a popular singer of the time) but this appears to be one of many Hepburn legends. Fearing that the Mexican divorce may not have been legal, Ludlow secured a divorce in Connecticut on September 18, 1941 in anticipation of his remarriage.
After his divorce, Ludlow married Elisabeth Albers and they had two children, a son Lewis Gouverneur Ludlow and a daughter Katharine Ramsey Ludlow.
Despite their divorce, they remained on good terms, with Ludlow even financing the stage play of The Philadelphia Story in 1939 to help restart Hepburn's then-flagging career. She later wrote about him and their marriage in her memoir Me.
Katharine Hepburn's relationship with Ludlow was one of the most enduring of her life.
Following Katharine's death in June, Ludlow's family decided to set the record straight about the couple they had known as Luddy and Kate. Although they divorced in the early 1930s, and for many years Katharine denied the marriage had even taken place, they never lost touch, and after Spencer Tracy's death and that of Ludlow's second wife, they resumed their relationship, remaining close until Ludlow's death.
When Ludlow fell ill with cancer, Katharine visited him every weekend on her way to her weekend home at Fenwick, and again on the way back. She continued to visit him every weekend when he went into hospital. "One day, he called my mother from the hospital," Morris says. "He said, ‘Kate and I are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary'."
In 1991, when the family turned their Georgian House at Collen Brook into the Smith-Lewis Local History Museum, Hepburn - though frail by then - lent her prestige to the project. Now a display is planned to mark the lives of the remarkable women of Collen Brook: Helen Smith Brinton, the first American woman to study at Oxford, Gertrude Gouverneur Clemson Smith, chairman of the Women's Suffragettes for the State of Pennsylvania, Eleanor Houston Smith (Morris' mother), a great conservationist - and another strong woman of the Smith family, Katharine Houghton Hepburn.
Alongside her in the exhibition will stand Ludlow Ogden Smith, her devoted husband, whose support and security helped launch her career and to whom she returned in her later years. Now both are dead, he will be at last acknowledged as the other great love of her life.
He married Katharine Hepburn in 1928; she was 21 and he was 29. They met while she was in her senior year at Bryn Mawr College, through a mutual friend who lived next to campus. They separated in 1934 and Kate traveled to Mexico to gain a divorce. After the divorce and his purging from the Philadelphia Social Register, he changed his name to Ogden Smith Ludlow to gain back his anonymity. A rumor persists that the change was made at Hepburn's request so that she would not be known as "Kate Smith" (Kate Smith was a popular singer of the time) but this appears to be one of many Hepburn legends. Fearing that the Mexican divorce may not have been legal, Ludlow secured a divorce in Connecticut on September 18, 1941 in anticipation of his remarriage.
After his divorce, Ludlow married Elisabeth Albers and they had two children, a son Lewis Gouverneur Ludlow and a daughter Katharine Ramsey Ludlow.
Despite their divorce, they remained on good terms, with Ludlow even financing the stage play of The Philadelphia Story in 1939 to help restart Hepburn's then-flagging career. She later wrote about him and their marriage in her memoir Me.
Katharine Hepburn's relationship with Ludlow was one of the most enduring of her life.
Following Katharine's death in June, Ludlow's family decided to set the record straight about the couple they had known as Luddy and Kate. Although they divorced in the early 1930s, and for many years Katharine denied the marriage had even taken place, they never lost touch, and after Spencer Tracy's death and that of Ludlow's second wife, they resumed their relationship, remaining close until Ludlow's death.
When Ludlow fell ill with cancer, Katharine visited him every weekend on her way to her weekend home at Fenwick, and again on the way back. She continued to visit him every weekend when he went into hospital. "One day, he called my mother from the hospital," Morris says. "He said, ‘Kate and I are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary'."
In 1991, when the family turned their Georgian House at Collen Brook into the Smith-Lewis Local History Museum, Hepburn - though frail by then - lent her prestige to the project. Now a display is planned to mark the lives of the remarkable women of Collen Brook: Helen Smith Brinton, the first American woman to study at Oxford, Gertrude Gouverneur Clemson Smith, chairman of the Women's Suffragettes for the State of Pennsylvania, Eleanor Houston Smith (Morris' mother), a great conservationist - and another strong woman of the Smith family, Katharine Houghton Hepburn.
Alongside her in the exhibition will stand Ludlow Ogden Smith, her devoted husband, whose support and security helped launch her career and to whom she returned in her later years. Now both are dead, he will be at last acknowledged as the other great love of her life.
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