Patty Andrews

Her sisters were Lavern Sophie born July 6, 1911, died 1967 (cancer); Maxene Angelyn born Jan.

3, 1916, died October 1995 of a heart attack while on vacation at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Peter Andrews did not think it honorable to have his daughters in show business and decided they should go back to school and become secretaries. Maxine was only four when she first appeared on her first radio broadcast in Minneapolis. By the time she was six she was entertaining at veterans hospitals, for the Mayor of Minneapolis and at Daughters of American Revolution luncheons. Laverne started the trio of sisters and they appeared in kiddie revues on local radio stations and at the Orpheum in their hometown of Minneapolis. It was there they were discovered by Larry Rich, who offered them a job with his traveling revue. Patty was only ten at the time. They began their career in New York city with Jack Belasco's orchestra and later with Ted Mack making the Vaudeville circuit.

She was born in Mound, Minnesota on 16 February 1918, the daughter of Peter Andreos (changed to 'Andrews' upon arriving in the US) and Olga Sollie. Her real name was Patricia Marie (Patty nickname). Her father was a Greek Catholic immigrant and her mother a Lutheran from Norway who ran the pure food café, a Greek café in Minneapolis which was located adjacent to the Orpheum Theater.

Began singing with her sisters in 1932 at the age of 14. Six years later the trio had their first major hit with the Decca Record "Bei Meir Bist du Schoen" (American translation: "To Me, You're Grand"). The flip side song "Nice Work If You Can Get It" went nowhere.

In 1937 they were heard by recording executive, Dave Kapp and they began a long association with a string of hits.

The Andrews Sisters, of whom Patty was the lead singer, introduced " Boogie Woodies Bugle Boy" (one of their signature songs) in the 1941 film Buck Privates, which was also the first starring roles of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Their appearance proved so popular that they were then seen in a sequel of sorts, the 1942 all-star Universal musical Private Buckaroo.

An American institution during WWII, the Andrews Sisters became synonymous with the war effort. When the war ended in 1945, it was the sisters who announced it to 5,000 GI's during a USO tour in Italy just prior to the men heading off for duty in the Pacific. Patty, via a note given her by the troop's commanding officer, read the emotional announcement.

In 1953, the group broke up with Laverne going to New York to study dramatics. Laverne became a career housewife and Patti stayed in show business as a single after their hopes and ambitions clashed with one another.

In 1956 they regrouped and sang in Las Vegas at the Flamingo Hotel along with a host of TV offers and a new Capitol recording contract. Their first major hit was "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon", was very well liked by Nazi Germany, until the discovery that the songwriters were a Jewish race.

At the peak of their success, The Andrews Sisters were the top-selling vocal trio of all time. There is some dispute as to whether they still hold that record, or if their record sales were eclipsed by the 1960s Motown trio The Supremes.

The Andrews Sisters trio of Laverne Andrews, Maxene Andrews and Patty are listed in order of first, second and third born. The order of their births is also the order of their deaths and the length of their life times. Laverne died of cancer at age 55 in 1967; Maxene of a heart attack at age 79 in 1995; Patty from natural causes at age 94 in 2013.

Patty's first husband, agent Martin Melcher, left her after meeting singer Doris Day. He went on to marry Day the next year and subsequently ruined her financially by the time he died in 1968. Her second husband was her group's pianist, Wally Weschler. It was a happy marriage and lasted more than 58 years.

In 1973, Patty and Maxene enjoyed a resurgence of popularity following Bette Midler's nostalgic hit version of the girls' signature song "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." As a result, the two starred together on Broadway a year later (March 1974) in the WWII musical "Over Here" which ran for 10 months, was the hit of the season, and only closed due to a salary dispute between the sisters and the producers. Maxene and Patty wound up having their own huge, unresolved, two-decade falling out. In fact, they saw each other only twice following the show's run in 1975 and Maxene's death in 1995. The first time was in 1982 when Maxene suffered her first heart attack and Patty went to her side; the second was in 1987 when they received their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Patty seemed to feel that Maxene's life-long jealousy of her was the primary reason for their disconnect.

In addition to her sister Maxine, Patty's co-stars in the 1974 stage production of Over Here included several young performers making their Broadway debuts, among them Ann Reinking, Marilu Henner, Treat Williams and John Travolta.

The sisters got into an ugly dispute over money with the producers of their Broadway show and with each other, leading to the show's closing in 1975. Also canceled was a national tour, so the Broadway stage appearance proved to be the last time the sisters sang together. They each pursued solo careers, and over the next 20 years. they never reconciled and remained estranged, even up to the point of Maxene Andrews's death in 1995.