Rosemary Clooney

in Maysville Rosemary Clooney was born on May 23, 1928, in Maysville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marie Frances (née Guilfoyle) and Andrew Joseph Clooney. She was one of five children. Andrew was of Irish and German descent while Marie was of Irish ancestry. Clooney was raised Catholic. At age 15, her mother and brother Nick moved to California. Clooney and her sister Betty remained with their father. The family resided in the John Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s. Rosemary and Betty became entertainers, whereas Nick became a newsman and television broadcaster (some of her children, including Miguel Ferrer and Rafael Ferrer, and her nephew, George Clooney, also became respected actors and entertainers). In 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot on Cincinnati's radio station WLW as singers. Rosemary and Betty sang in a duo for much of Rosemary's early career. ==Career==

, and Jerry Lewis on TV's The Colgate Comedy Hour, 1952 In 1947, the Clooney sisters signed with Columbia Records and cut their first record with Tony Pastor's big band, "I'm Sorry I Didn't Say Sorry", Two years later, she starred in a half-hour syndicated television musical-variety show, The Rosemary Clooney Show, which featured The Hi-Lo's singing group and Nelson Riddle's orchestra. In 1957, the show moved to NBC prime time as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney, but it lasted only one season. The new show featured the singing group The Modernaires and Frank DeVol's orchestra. In later years, Clooney often appeared with Bing Crosby on television, such as in the 1957 special The Edsel Show, and the two friends made a concert tour of Ireland together. On November 21, 1957, she appeared on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, a frequent entry in the "Top 20" and featuring a musical group called "The Top Twenty". In 1960, Clooney and Crosby co-starred in a 20-minute CBS radio program that aired before the midday news each weekday. She had 16 songs make the Billboard pop chart from 1951 to 1956 and was one of the biggest names in pop music for several years. a schedule which continued until her death. At that time, Clooney was one of the few singers of her generation to still be making regular recordings. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Clooney did television commercials for Coronet brand paper towels, during which she sang the memorable jingle, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Cor-o-net." Clooney sang a duet with Wild Man Fischer on "It's a Hard Business" in 1986, and in 1994, she sang a duet of "Green Eyes" with Barry Manilow in his 1994 album, ''Singin' with the Big Bands''. In 1994, Clooney guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama ER Clooney was also awarded a Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. In 1999, she founded the Rosemary Clooney Music Festival, held annually in Maysville, her hometown. Clooney performed at the festival every year until her death. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney's first film, The Stars Are Singing, premiered in 1953. Clooney received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. ==Personal life==

on The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney (1957) 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. Clooney remarried Ferrer on November 22, 1964, in Los Angeles. However, the marriage again ended in divorce as Ferrer had an affair with the woman who would become his last wife, Stella Magee. The couple divorced again after Clooney found out about the affair, this time in 1967. In 1968, Clooney's relationship with a drummer ended after two years. At this time, following a tour, she became increasingly dependent on tranquilizers and sleeping pills. A month later, she had a nervous breakdown onstage in Reno, Nevada, where Clooney began shouting insults at her audience. She was hospitalized in a mental health care facility and remained in psychoanalytic therapy for eight years. Clooney's sister Betty died at age 45 of a brain aneurysm in 1976, and she subsequently started a foundation in memory of and named after Betty. During this time, Clooney also 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 chronicled her unhappy early life, her career as a singer, her marriage to Ferrer, her mental breakdown in 1968, and the diagnosis of bipolar disorder that seriously disrupted her career, concluding with her comeback as a singer and her happiness. Clooney's good 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. Locke was 38 at the time and just 16 years younger than Clooney in real life, yet playing her from 17 to 40. Orlando and Locke were the same age, although the real Ferrer was 16 years older than Clooney. In 1983, Clooney and her brother Nick co-chaired the Betty Clooney Foundation for the Brain-Injured, addressing the needs of survivors of cognitive disabilities caused by strokes, tumors, and brain damage from trauma or age. In 1997, Clooney married her longtime friend and a former dancer, Dante DiPaolo, at St. Patrick's Church in Maysville, Kentucky. In 1999, Clooney published her second autobiography, Girl Singer: An Autobiography, describing her battles with addiction to prescription drugs for depression, and how she lost and then regained a fortune. "I'd call myself a sweet singer with a big band sensibility," she wrote. Lung cancer and death A longtime heavy smoker, Clooney was diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2001. She died on June 29, 2002, at age 74 at her Beverly Hills home from complications of cancer. A funeral was held for Clooney at St. Patrick's Church in Maysville, Kentucky. Legacy Clooney lived for many years in Beverly Hills, California, in the house formerly owned by George and Ira Gershwin at 1019 North Roxbury Drive. It was sold to a developer after her death in 2002 and has since been demolished. In 1980, Clooney purchased a second home on Riverside Drive in Augusta, Kentucky, near Maysville, her childhood hometown. Today, the Augusta house serves as a historic house museum, allowing visitors to view collections of her personal items and memorabilia from many of her films and singing performances. Clooney also maintained an apartment in the early 1960s at the Winslow Hotel on Madison Avenue (now demolished). In 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. That same year, Bette Midler, after many years apart, rejoined forces with Barry Manilow to record Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook. The album was an instant success, being certified gold by Recording Industry Association of America. One of the songbook selections, "This Ole House", became Midler's first Christian radio single shipped by Rick Hendrix and his positive music movement. The album was nominated for a Grammy the following year. 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, or as Boone put it: "I wanted to select songs that would give an insight into Rosemary 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. Clooney's brother, Nick, spoke during the dedication for the mural, explaining various images to the crowd. ==Discography==

• Tony Pastor and His Orchestra (1947 short subject) • The Stars Are Singing (1953) as Terry Brennan • Here Come the Girls (1953) as Daisy Crockett • Red Garters (1954) as Calaveras Kate • White Christmas (1954) as Betty Haynes • Deep in My Heart (1954; cameo appearance) as Performer in 'That Midnight Girl' • Conquest of Space (1955) as Musical Number (uncredited) (archive footage) • ''The Joker's Wild'' (1968, TV Movie) • Twilight Theater (1982, TV Movie) • Hardcastle and McCormick (1986, TV Series) as Millie Denton • Sister Margaret and the Saturday Night Ladies (1987, TV Movie) as Sarah • Radioland Murders (1994) as Anna • ER (1994, TV Series) as Mary Cavanaugh / 'Madame X' • LateLine (1999, TV Series) as Special Guest Mother ==Radio broadcasts==