Smith later joined the Ivy Benson Orchestra in 1948 and flew into Berlin to perform for troops when the city's blockade started. She married the trumpeter Jack Peberdy in August 1950 (after being introduced to him by her father at the saxophonist's 19th birthday party). Smith joined Freddy Randall's band the same year, and she and her husband worked full-time for the trumpeter from 1953 to February 1957. In 1956, the band travelled to the United States, in exchange for the visit of Louis Armstrong to the United Kingdom. Racial tensions were high in the era and in one theatre in North Carolina where she was performing the band was evacuated because of a bomb. Smith toured with the same programme as Bill Haley &amp; His Comets, and found some success when her recording of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" reached the American hit parade, garnering admiration with some of the country's famous musicians. Smith was voted one of Britain's best tenor-saxophone players in a 1957 "Melody Maker" poll.