Kate Smith was one of America’s best-known singers in the mid-20th century - big voice, big woman, familiar to TV variety show audiences - but just in the last two weeks or so, two pro sports teams cut ties to her when they learned she had sung a couple of racist songs back in the 1930s. The New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Flyers stopped playing her famous version of “God Bless America” at their games, and the Flyers removed a statue of her from outside their arena.