PAULA KELLY

American big band singer Paula Kelly, was born on April 6, 1919 in Grove City, Pennsylvania. In her early career, she sang with orchestras led by Dick Stabile, Artie Shaw and Al Donahue. In early 1941 she joined Glenn Miller's orchestra, replacing Dorothy Claire and Marion Hutton.


Kelly originally performed solo, but also soon became the female lead of The Modernaires, originally a male trio, then a quartet, resulting in the group becoming a quintet of four male singers and herself.


In 1942, Glenn Miller went into World War II military service and his band broke up. The Modernaires continued with Kelly as lead singer until 1978, when she retired in favor of her daughter, who performed as Paula Kelly Jr. She had two other daughters, Martha (died 22 March 2006) and Juliann.

She married Hal Dickinson, one of the original members of the Modernaires, shortly after joining the group. They had three daughters and remained together until his death in 1970.


In 1976 she married Richard Turner to whom she was married until her death in 1992, four days before her 73rd birthday.

Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly & Shirley MacLaine sing "There's Gottta Be Something Better Than This"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wGgfYJoZts


Reference - Wikipédia.