Ada “Bricktop” Smith

Birth Name: Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith

Date of Birth: August 14, 1894

Place of Birth: Alderson, West Virginia, U.S.

Date of Death: February 1, 1984

Place of Death: New York City, New York, U.S.

Ethnicity: African-American, likely some Irish

Ada “Bricktop” Smith was an American dancer, jazz singer, vaudevillian, and saloon-keeper. She owned the nightclub Chez Bricktop in Paris, France. She also owned clubs in Mexico City and Rome. She was also known as Ada DuCongé.

Her father was African-American. Her mother appears to have been directly mixed-race, possibly the daughter of an Irish slave-owner father and an African-American slave mother.

Ada was married to saxophonist Peter DuCongé. She was Catholic.