LOS ANGELES — Jo Stafford, the honey-voiced band singer who starred in radio and television and sold more than 25 million records with her ballads and folks songs, has died. She was 90.
Stafford died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at her Century City home, her son, Tim Weston of Topanga, said Friday. She had been in declining health since October, he said.
Stafford had 26 charted singles and nearly a dozen top 10 hits, her son said. She won a Grammy in 1960 for comedy.
Stafford's records of "I'll Walk Alone," "I'll Be Seeing You," "I Don't Want to Walk Without You" and other sentimental songs struck the hearts of servicemen far from home in both World War II and the Korean War. They awarded her the title of "GI Jo."
In 1939, she was working with a group of male singers called the Pied Pipers. The group was invited to join the Tommy Dorsey band, a big attraction in the swing era.
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Soon the Pied Pipers were singing in major hotels and ballrooms and on radio.
A year later, Frank Sinatra, 24, joined Dorsey after a brief stint with Harry James, and he and the Pied Pipers melded ideally. Their languorous "I'll Never Smile Again" became the No. 1 hit for 12 weeks and sold 2 million copies.
A half-century later, Sinatra remarked about Stafford, "It was a joy to sit on the bandstand and listen to her."
Dorsey fired the Pied Pipers after an argument in 1944 and the group signed with the fledgling Capitol Records, but Stafford left the group to join Johnny Mercer, one of the Capitol founders. Mercer guided her new career with hits such as "Candy," "Serenade of the Bells" and "That's for Me."
At Capitol, Stafford, who had been married to Pied Piper John Huddleston from 1941 to 1943, became reacquainted with Paul Weston, who had been an arranger for Dorsey. They married in 1952, and he acted as her arranger and conductor for the rest of her career.
