Jill Corey(1935-2021)

The Dave Garroway show auditioned for female singers and there was a premium on time and studio space. There was no piano and Skitch Henderson, the music director, had to accompany the young hopefuls on a celeste, and instrument, which despite its similarity to a piano is very difficult to sing with. Jill was very nervous during the hustle and bustle of all this, but Garroway reassured her and she won the audition. Jill was raised by an older sister after her mother had died and then began singing with a small band which played in towns near Avonmore for $5. a night. One evening when the band traveling to Pittsburgh, the manager of a LaTrobe radio station was in the audience. He was impressed with her and asked he to make a tape recording for him as he thought it would help her. The station manager sent it to a recording executive in New York and two days later she was signed to a recording contract. She later became the top female singer on the "Dave Garroway Show", and later the "Johnny Carson Show."