Knowing that her mother would disapprove of her working in a cabaret, she made it known that her new job was playing for a dancing school.

"[10] Three weeks later the band moved to a better booking at the De Luxe Café, where the entertainers included Florence Mills and Cora Green.

[11] She was with Oliver at Dreamland in 1921 when an offer came for the orchestra to play a six-month engagement at the Pergola Ballroom in San Francisco.

At the end of that booking Hardin returned to Chicago while the rest of the Oliver band went to Los Angeles.

[13] In Chicago, Hardin returned to work at Dreamland as a pianist in an orchestra for Mae Brady, a violinist and vaudeville stalwart.

King Oliver's band was enjoying enormous success at Dreamland when he sent for Louis Armstrong to join as second cornetist.

In addition to updating his appearance, Hardin assisted Armstrong in learning classical music with the help of a German teacher in Chicago.

[3] Armstrong was happy to be playing next to his idol, but Hardin at first persuaded him to manage his own money and assert himself on the bandstand and during recording sessions; eventually, she convinced him to leave Oliver and go out on his own.

[18] Armstrong resigned from Oliver's band and in September 1924 accepted a job with bandleader Fletcher Henderson in New York City.

[20] In the 1930s, sometimes billing herself as "Mrs. Louis Armstrong", Hardin led an "All Girl Orchestra", a mixed-sex big band which broadcast nationally over the NBC radio network.

She made a trip to Europe and had a brief love affair in France, but mostly she worked around Chicago, often with fellow Chicagoans.

She would again appear on that label in 1961, participating in its project Chicago: The Living Legends as accompanist for Alberta Hunter and leader of her own hastily assembled big band.

The Riverside recordings led to her inclusion in a 1961 NBC network special, Chicago and All That Jazz, and a follow-up album released by Verve.

In 1962, she began writing her autobiography with Chris Albertson, but she changed her mind when she realized the book would include experiences that might discomfit Louis Armstrong, so the project was delayed until his death.

Returning to Chicago, she felt that work on her autobiography could continue, but the following month, performing at a televised memorial concert for Armstrong, she collapsed at the piano and died from a heart attack on the way to the hospital.