Untold Stories: The Jewish Family Who Gave Louis Armstrong His First Instrument

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The Karnofskys shared their loving home with young Louis Armstrong, future jazz celebrity, and even bought him his first instrument. Armstrong always wore a Star of David in honor of his friends.

I am writing an article series to tell a few of these little-known but moving “untold stories” of American greatness.

Since today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it seems particularly appropriate to remember the Jewish family that helped Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, one of America’s most famous and influential jazz musicians, get his first instrument—and begin his musical journey.

According to Jewish Journal, Louis Armstrong was born into a part of New Orleans in 1901 that was so violent it was nicknamed “The Battlefield.” Armstrong’s mother was only 16 years’ old and his father ended up abandoning his family. Amidst this abandonment and poverty, young Louis turned to a family of Lithuanian Jews.

“The Karnof[sk]y boys were all fine young men, wonderful dispositions. The whole family had that fine warmth for all their Negro help,” Armstrong reportedly wrote in a memoir. “The Karnofskys would start getting ready for work at five o’clock in the morning and I was right there along with them.”

[Jewish Journal] The Karnofskys were a financially poor but loving family towards Armstrong. They provided a bed, food and shelter, and even included him in their Shabbat dinners. Armstrong had helped the father with his horse-and-wagon hauling business delivering coal. Each day as they passed a particular store, Armstrong pointed to an old cornet in the window, a cornet he couldn’t hope to buy but longed to play. One day, Mr. Karnofsky stopped at the store, walked in and came out with the cornet. He handed it to Armstrong and told him he could work it off. They helped him to purchase his very first instrument.

With the $2 advancement from the Karnofskys to start him off on the $5 cornet, Armstrong penny-pinched from his salary until he paid off the cornet—and he was on his way to becoming a great musician! “Boy was I a Happy Kid,” Armstrong recalled, per STL Jewish Light.