Ludlow Ogden Smith

Ludlow Ogden Smith (February 6 1899, Pennsylvania – July 13 1979, New Canaan, Connecticut) was a Philadelphia businessman.

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.

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".

Ludlow was president of Ogden Ludlow Inc. and the creator of the "Ludlow Formula", a precursor to computerized systems in financial institutions.

After his divorce, Ludlow married Elisabeth Albers and they had two children, a son Lewis Gouverneur Ludlow and a daughter Katharine Ramsey Ludlow. He died of cancer, aged 80.

External links

* [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s2.cfm?id=896112003 The story related in "The Scotsman" newspaper]