
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 24, 1990                   TAG: 9006280492
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SINGER JUNE CHRISTY DIES

June Christy, whose wistful, foggy alto epitomized "cool" jazz singing in the 1940s and '50s, died Thursday at the age of 64 at her home in Los Angeles.

The cause of death was complications from kidney failure, said her husband, Bob Cooper, whom she met when he was a saxophonist for the Stan Kenton Orchestra, the band with which Christy first gained great popularity in 1945.

Christy, named Shirley Luter at her birth in Springfield, Ill., grew up in nearby Decatur and at the age of 13 began singing with a local band led by Bill Oetyel.

Anita O'Day, then the lead singer for the Kenton band, later recalled hearing Christy at a Chicago club called the Three Deuces and recommending her to Kenton as O'Day's replacement.

Among the band's three most famous lead singers, who also included Chris Connor, Christy worked with the band the longest, six years. Four times from 1946 to 1950 she was chosen "best female vocalist with a big band" in Down Beat's annual poll.

Christy's first recording with the Kenton band, "Tampico," was released in May 1945 and sold a million copies. Several other hit records with the band followed, including "It's Been a Long, Long Time" (1945), "Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy" (1946) and "Lonely Woman" (1948).

by CNB