According to the vendor, Louis Armstrong gifted the trumpet to Leon Armstrong (nicknamed Sonny), the son of his adopted son Clarence Hatfield Armstrong. The vendor’s mother had a long term relationship with Sonny, who gifted the trumpet to the vendor in 1970, during her first year of Junior High as a music major.

Clarence was the son of Louis’ cousin Flora Hatfield. When Flora died, the teenage Louis adopted Clarence, who later suffered a disabling head injury as a young child. Louis was a proud father to Clarence, and treated him like a son throughout his life, eventually financing a ‘marriage of convenience’ for Clarence with Evelyn Allen, known as Lillian, who bore him a child – Sonny. Clarence’s friend Tom Cosentino recalled They had a son who used to play the trumpet out of his window all the time. Louis supported Clarence throughout his life, and provided a pension for him when he died.