Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American pop and jazz singer and actress. She came to prominence with the song "Come On-a My House" (1951), which was followed by "Tenderly" (1951), "Half as Much" (1952), "Botch-a-Me" (1952), "Mambo Italiano" (1954), "Hey There" (1954), "This Ole House" (1954), and "Sway" (1960), a remake of "¿Quién será?". In total, her discography includes 49 studio albums, 33 compilation albums, six live albums, four video albums, one soundtrack album, and three box sets.

Clooney's career languished in the 1960s due to her pregnancies, bipolar disorder, and drug addictions, but was revived in 1976, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby invited her on his 50th anniversary tour. Clooney continued recording until her death in 2002. She was the mother of actor Miguel Ferrer and the aunt of actor George Clooney. A heavy smoker, Clooney died of lung cancer at age 74.

Rosemary Clooney was born on May 23, 1928, in Maysville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marie Frances (née Guilfoyle), of Irish ancestry, and Andrew Joseph Clooney, of Irish and German descent. Her father was an alcoholic who was often jailed for public drunkenness and struggled to make a living, while her mother traveled often for her dress business. Her younger brother, Andy, drowned in the Ohio River as a young boy. Clooney was raised Catholic. When Rosemary was 15, her mother remarried and moved with Rosemary's brother Nick to California, while Rosemary and her sister Betty remained with their father. They resided in the John Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s. She moved between relatives and attended four high schools, all in the Cincinnati-area: Hughes, Withrow, Our Lady of Mercy, and Western Hills.

Clooney never received singing lessons or learned how to read sheet music. She and her sister Betty learned to sing by ear and began singing to attract crowds before their grandfather's campaign speeches for mayor of Maysville; he was elected three times. The performances built their confidence and gave them local recognition.

In 1945, Rosemary and Betty won a spot singing on the WLW radio station in Cincinnati, making $20 per week. While on the radio, in 1947, they were heard by Tony Pastor when he was in Cincinnati. Pastor was initially reluctant to take both sisters into his band as Betty was still under the age of 18 but hired them to record "I'm Sorry I Didn't Say Sorry", backed with "The Lady from Twenty-Nine Palms". The Clooneys recorded 14 songs with the Pastor band.

Rosemary signed to Columbia Records and made her solo recording debut in mid-1949 with "Bargain Day" and "Cabaret".

In 1950 and 1951, Clooney was a regular on the CBS Radio and television versions of Songs for Sale. In early 1951, she had a minor hit with "Beautiful Brown Eyes".

Clooney's recording of "Come On-a My House" (1951), produced by Mitch Miller, became her first big chart hit. The song was a novelty pop song that Clooney did not like and required her to sing with an accent, but Miller forced her to record it to keep her recording contract. The song sold over 1 million copies and it propelled her to stardom. Clooney's first royalty check from the song was $130,000.

Clooney was married twice to José Ferrer. They first married on July 13, 1953, in Durant, Oklahoma. They moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1954, and then to Los Angeles in 1958. Together, the couple had five children; son Miguel Ferrer also became an actor. Clooney and Ferrer divorced for the first time in 1961; Ferrer had cheated frequently. As the relationship was ending, Clooney had an affair with bandleader Nelson Riddle.

Clooney remarried Ferrer on November 22, 1964, in Los Angeles. However, they divorced again in 1967 as Ferrer had an affair with Stella Magee, who later became his last wife.

In 1977, Clooney wrote her first autobiography, This for Remembrance: The Autobiography of Rosemary Clooney, an Irish-American Singer, written in collaboration with Raymond Strait and published by Playboy Press in 1977. Clooney's friend Bing Crosby wrote the introduction. Katherine Coker adapted the book for Jackie Cooper, who produced and directed the television movie, Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story (1982) starring Sondra Locke (who lip synced Clooney's songs), Penelope Milford as Betty, and Tony Orlando as José Ferrer.

In 1999, Clooney published her second autobiography, Girl Singer: An Autobiography.

Clooney was a lifelong heavy smoker. In 1996, Clooney was hospitalized with acute respiratory failure. Her doctors implored her to quit smoking but her difficulties led her to ask her son to bring her cigarettes in the hospital, although she did quit smoking that year.

While performing on tour in late 2001, Clooney struggled with breathing. At a family gathering for Christmas in 2001, she was only able to walk up two steps at a time. In January 2002, she was diagnosed with stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer. The next day, she underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic to remove the upper lobe of her left lung. She stayed in Rochester, Minnesota to recover; a series of infections delayed her recovery. She died in her sleep on June 29, 2002, at age 74 at her Beverly Hills home. A funeral was held at St. Patrick's Church in Maysville, Kentucky; she is buried in the church cemetery.

In 1953, Clooney bought the house formerly owned by George and Ira Gershwin at 1019 North Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills, California. It was sold after her death in 2002 for just under $8 million and sold again for $9 million in 2005. It has since been demolished.

In 1980, Clooney purchased a second home, a former hotel built in 1835–1840, on Riverside Drive in Augusta, Kentucky, near Maysville, her childhood hometown. In 2004, former Miss America Heather French Henry acquired the house and spent another $100,000 on renovations, reopening it as the Rosemary Clooney Museum, a historic house museum, with collections of her personal items and memorabilia from many of her films and singing performances.

In March 2003, Clooney was inducted into the Kentucky Women Remembered exhibit, and her portrait by Alison Lyne is on permanent display in the Kentucky State Capitol's rotunda.

In May 2003, Bette Midler, recorded Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook with Barry Manilow, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004.

In 2005, the album Reflections of Rosemary by Debby Boone was released. Boone, who was Clooney's daughter-in-law, intended the album to be a musical portrait of Clooney "from a family perspective".

In September 2007, a mural honoring moments from Clooney's life was painted in downtown Maysville; it highlights the 1953 premiere of The Stars Are Singing and her singing career. It was painted by Louisiana muralists Robert Dafford, Herb Roe, and Brett Chigoy as part of the Maysville Floodwall Murals project.