Louise Tracy

Spencer Tracy has always been one of my favorite actors. He had that unique ability to immerse himself so completely in a role that it became difficult to separate the role from the actor. He often played a man who while accepting the existence of gray in the world followed a black and white moral compass. On the screen he was a man amongst men.

Off the screen life was much more complicated. He was married for forty-four years but most people consider Katherine Hepburn to be the love of his life. Most of the materials I have read concerning Tracy’s life focus on his acting skill and his love affair with Kate as he called her.

His wife, Louise always seems to be hidden by the great actors shadow. I always wondered how she stood by him all those years knowing he was in love with another woman. Having been raised Catholic Tracy never would divorce his wife and marry Kate, that kind of thing was not allowed by the church. Though apparently keeping a mistress for thirty years did not seem to bother the church. Through it all Louise stood by his side never publicly complaining.

I always wondered, what kept her going.

What kept her sane?

Appearances can be deceiving and after reading an article about Louise Tracy I have come to believe that it was Spencer who lived in her shadow not the other way around.

In 1924 they became the proud parents of a bouncing baby boy whom they named John Tracy. Everything went as expected until John was ten months old and Louise quite by accident discovered that her boy was deaf. Before informing Spencer she consulted with quite a few doctors and received the same answer from each. John’s ears had suffered nerve damage for reasons unknown and their son would never hear again.

In the 1920’s deafness was still associated with stupidity. Spencer was sure that his son was dumb, which brought tears to his eyes. Doctors told them that in a few years their son would be old enough for a state run special education school. The Tracy’s would not accept that and refused to give up. They continued to talk to John as if he could hear them.

Louise dedicated her days to teaching John how to talk and how to read lips. Sometimes it would take upwards of two or three thousand repetitions of a word before John could repeat the sound correctly but Louise was nothing if not dedicated.

When the Tracy’s moved to Hollywood Louise found herself giving talks about deafness to soldiers who had lost their hearing during the war. One of the talks she gave was attended a dozen or so mothers whose children were deaf. She befriended them and invited them to her home. There she discussed how she had taught John, who was now eighteen.

Along with the original group of mothers and Dr. Victor Goodhill, Louise formed the John Tracy clinic on the USC campus. The clinic offered free hearing screenings and a sense of community that was new to those who were deaf.

During the early years Spencer was the sole source of funding for the clinic. Than one of Gloria Swanson’s ex-husbands left a substantial sum to the clinic and Hollywood soon became the clinics main source of funding.

Louise spent the next four decades of her life turning the John Tracy clinic into one of the top research and education facilities in the world.

In 1952 at the dedication of the clinics new headquarters Spenser said it best, “You honor me because I am a movie actor, a star in Hollywood terms. Well, there’s nothing I have ever done that can match what Louise has done for deaf children and their parents.”

Her husband may have one several Oscars for his performances. However, if there were an Oscar for a life well lived Louise would have had a mantle full.

Source - LA Then and Now: “Actors Wife a Star in Aiding Deaf Children and Their Families”. Written by Cecilia Rasmussen
Sunday November 14, 2004