This month we lost one of the music world’s great icons, Patti Page. She rose to fame in the late 1940s and her popularity lasted through the mid 1970s. She was the best selling female artist of the 50s, selling over 100 million records. Her pop music style blended into country music so her hits often made the Country Music Charts. Her signature song Tennessee Waltz, recorded in 1950, is a good example of this. It was one of the best selling singles of the 20th century and still today is known by most everyone and my personal favorite. Another of her well known hits was "How Much is That Doggie in the Window", recorded in 1953 and sold over a million copies. It stayed on the best sellers chart for 5 months.

She was born in 1927 as Clara Ann Fowler in Claremore, Oklahoma. Her family was poor and large, father working on the railroad while her mother picked cotton. She graduated from Daniel Webster High School in 1945.

Her career began when she was 18, singing on the radio for a program sponsored by the Page Milk Company. This lead to her new name as Patti Page. She continued to work and make live appearances through the 1990s. In 1998 she recorded a live album at Carnegie Hall which won her a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. In 2000 she released yet another new album, Brand New Tennessee Waltz.

She never stopped performing or making public appearances until shortly before her death. In 2004 she appeared on the PBS Special "Magic Moments" and performed two of her hits.

In 2005 she gave several performances at a theater in Branson, Missouri. She was the host of a weekly radio show, "Music of Your Life" up until shortly before her death. She performed at least 50 concerts a year throughout the USA and Canada.

Married 3 times and adopting two children with her second husband, she married the 3rd time in 1990 to Jerry Filiciotto, remaining together until his death in 2009.

Sadly she passed away on January 1, 2012 in Encinitas, California.

Christine Moore

Alley Cats Vintage