We really were a very musical family. In spite of the fact that we were so poor when I was a youngster that supper was often just a bowl of bread and milk, Father somehow managed to squeeze out enough pennies to buy us a small pump organ, and I just loved this instrument too.

One thing all stage mothers share is an overpowering ambition for their daughters.

I was so anxious to succeed that I made a practice of appearing on all the disc jockey shows I could, in order to publicize the band.

I have a tremendous desire to learn, and to grow, and to develop whatever I have that will make for any kind of improvement in me.

Many times I wondered if I were truly carrying out God's plan for my life.

I played a Spaniard. I looked about as Spanish as any other fair-skinned German.

On the stage of the Italian Terrace Room in the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1938 ... the place where Champagne Music was born.