Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney was a pop and jazz vocalist and actress who became a star in the early 1950s. Raised in Maysville, Kentucky, she and her sister Betty began singing by ear and earned a spot on WLW radio in Cincinnati in 1945. Tony Pastor heard them and brought them into his band, and she later signed with Columbia Records for her solo debut in 1949. Her 1951 recording of Come On-a My House, a song she disliked, sold over a million copies and made her famous. She placed sixteen songs on Billboard's pop chart between 1951 and 1956 and collaborated with Marlene Dietrich and Bing Crosby. Clooney starred with Bing Crosby in White Christmas (1954) and headlined her own television variety shows. From 1977 she recorded an album each year for Concord Jazz. A 1994 guest appearance on ER earned her an Emmy nomination, and in 2002 she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.