Jo Stafford has died Wednesday, July 16, 2008 of congestive heart failure in her Century City, Calif., home. She was 90.
Stafford had 26 charted singles and nearly a dozen top 10 hits. She won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 1961 (with husband Paul Weston) for their album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris.
Although largely a solo artist, she recorded with singers Perry Como, Frankie Laine, Gordon MacRae, Johnny Mercer and Dick Haymes.
She was inexhaustible as a performer and became a favorite of servicemen who saw her tour bases and hospitals during World War II and the Korean War. She also participated in a high-profile American-led effort to beam pop music and propaganda throughout Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
She earned the nickname “G.I. Jo” but jokingly called herself “Miss Outgoing Freight,” a War Department euphemism for artillery shells and tanks sent to the front lines.
She was a staple of TV variety shows in the 1950s and briefly hosted her own program on CBS-TV with a band conducted by her husband, Paul Weston, music director of Capitol Records.
Jo Elizabeth Stafford was born Nov. 12, 1917, in Coalinga, Calif., near Fresno, where her father worked in the oil fields. She was raised in Long Beach, Calif., and received professional voice training.
Ms. Stafford’s family said she happily retired in the mid-1960s when she no longer found the music industry “fun.” For many years, the Westons involved themselves in charity work, and Ms. Stafford also led an organization helping mentally handicapped children.
She will live on in the Hearts of Everyone that Loved Her.
Sami
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