Trivia

The first female star to have her own prime-time TV variety show.

She had a long love affair with Burt Reynolds, who was 20 years younger than she was.

Contracted polio at 18 months of age. Through years of physical therapy, she was able to recover fully and was left with only a raised arch on one foot. Her enforced athletic therapy at a young age is what led to a lifelong love of athletics.

Helped start one of the first big-money professional golf tournaments for women.

Her ex-husband, George Montgomery, and her two children were with her when she died.

Took the professional name Dinah after the title of a favorite song.

She was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard; for Radio at 1751 Vine Street; and for Television at 6916 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

She earned the USO Medallion Award as the first entertainer to visit GIs on the front lines of WWII.

Dinah gave birth to daughter Melissa Ann (Melissa Montgomery in January 1948. She later adopted her son, John "Jody" David Montgomery.

Half of her ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cathedral City (near Palm Springs, California). The other half are interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Per 1920/1930 census records, her parents were Russian-born Jews. Her father was a prosperous dry goods merchant in Tennessee.

Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1994.

Dinah Shore Boulevard is named in her honor in her hometown of Winchester, Tennessee.

Appears on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp, issued on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009, in the Early TV Memories issue honoring The Dinah Shore Show (1951).

Won the 1957 Peabody award for television for "The Dinah Shore Show".

Was a registered Republican early in her career and through the influence of Ronald Reagan, at that time a staunch Democrat, she switched her political affiliation. Reagan and Shore remained friends long after he switched to the Republican party. Noted her close friend Marianne Tatashore, in People magazine's obituary of Miss Shore in 1994: "Dinah was a Democrat through and through, yet she numbered the Reagans among her friends and was their guest at the White House.".

Although she was not an original member of the cast of "Call Me Madam", she sang all the Ethel Merman songs on the original cast recording when Decca Records refused to release Ms. Merman from her contract to record the soundtrack for RCA.

The New York Times Magazine listed Dinah Shore among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire.

Had a lifelong passion for painting and cookbooks.

Dinah Shore Drive is named for her. It spans the cities of Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City (near Palm Springs, California).

Member of Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority.

Host of NBC Radio's "Birdseye Open House" (1943-1946).

She has three grandchildren by Melissa: Jennifer, Adam, and Alexandre.

Her gorgeous prairie-style home in Palm Springs, California is currently a highly-sought (and very expensive) weekend rental property, which includes the services of a cook and a maid.

Lived in a one story house in Mission Hills Country Club, located in Rancho Mirage, California. Was also good friends with all of her neighbors. Among them were Donald Donovan and Geraldine Donovan.

Dinah Shore's photograph appears in an exhibit in the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans, Louisiana--a wall of photos highlighting Jewish Southerners who have made contributions to arts, literature, drama and film, sports, and other cultural endeavors. Other people whose pictures appear in the same exhibit include the actors Ginnifer Goodwin, Brent Spiner, Tony Randall, Tim Blake Nelson, and Evan Rachel Wood, playwrights Lillian Hellman and Tony Kushner, culinary historian Michael Twitty, and singer Kinky Friedman.