Paula Kelly (April 6, 1919 – April 2, 1992) was an American
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
singer
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
.
Early life
Kelly was born in
Grove City, Pennsylvania
Grove City is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in southeastern Mercer County, Pennsylvania, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States, located approximately north of Pittsburgh and south of Erie, Pennsylvania, Erie. At the 2020 United States Ce ...
, United States. to Dr. Herbert Augustus & Julia Clarice (née Kennedy) Kelly. Kelly started her singing career in her hometown with her two sisters Julia and Martha; following Martha's death in September, 1938 she turned to big time singing.
Career
Kelly sang with orchestras led by
Dick Stabile
Richard Dominic Stabile (May 29, 1909 – September 18, 1980) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader.
Career
He was born in Newark, New Jersey, United States. The son of a band leader and violinist, Stabile learned piano a ...
,
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...
, and
Al Donahue
Al Donahue (June 12, 1904, Dorchester, Massachusetts - February 20, 1983, Fallbrook, California) was an American violinist and big band leader.
Donahue got his start playing in Boston-area campus bands and led a band at Boston's Weber Duck Inn i ...
. In early 1941, she joined
Glenn Miller
Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Arm ...
's orchestra,
[ ] replacing
Dorothy Claire
Dorothy Claire (born Marietta Wright, June 5, 1920 – September 4, 1982) was an American singer and actress on Broadway and with big bands.
Early years
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Wright, Claire was born in La Porte, Indiana on June 5, 1 ...
and
Marion Hutton
Marion Hutton (born Marion Thornburg; March 10, 1919 – January 10, 1987) was an American singing, singer and actress. She is best remembered for her singing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1938 to 1942. She was the sister of actress a ...
.
Kelly originally performed solo, but also soon became the female lead of
The Modernaires
The Modernaires was an American vocal group, best known for performing in the 1940s alongside Glenn Miller.
Career
The Modernaires began in 1934 as "Don Juan, Two and Three," a trio of schoolmates from Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New Y ...
,
originally a male
trio, then a
quartet
In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments.
Classical String quartet
In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...
, resulting in the group becoming a
quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...
of four male singers and herself. Her first recording with the group was "
Perfidia
"Perfidia" (Spanish for " perfidy", meaning ''faithlessness'', ''treachery'' or ''betrayal'') is a 1939 Spanish-language song written by Mexican composer and arranger Alberto Domínguez (1906–1975). The song is sung from the perspectiv ...
", on which they sang with Dorothy Claire.
In 1942, Glenn Miller went into
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
military service and his band broke up. The Modernaires continued with Kelly as lead singer until 1978, when she retired in favor of her daughter, who performed as Paula Kelly Jr. In the late 1970s, Kelly and The Modernaires kept swing era music alive with their performances in various venues.
[
]
Personal life
She married Hal Dickinson,[ one of the original members of the Modernaires, on December 31, 1939, shortly after joining the group. They had three daughters and remained together until his death on November 18, 1970. In 1976, she married Richard L. Turner to whom she was married until her death. They lived in ]Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...
.Costa Mesa, California
Costa Mesa (; Spanish for "Table Coast") is a city in Orange County, California. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including part of the South Coast Plaza–John Wa ...
on April 2, 1992, four days before her 73rd birthday.
References
Sources
*Flower, John (1972). ''Moonlight Serenade: a bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band''. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House. .
*Simon, George Thomas (1980). ''Glenn Miller and His Orchestra''. New York: Da Capo paperback. .
*Schuller, Gunther (1991). ''The Swing Era, Volume 2: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
External links
Paula Kelly info at SOLID! site
*
Paula Kelly interviewed on the Pop Chronicles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Paula (singer)
1919 births
1992 deaths
Big band singers
People from Grove City, Pennsylvania
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
Glenn Miller Orchestra members