A “Famous Tennessean” can include a person born in Tennessee or anyone with direct ties to the state who went on to be a public figure with a recognizable name.
Dinah Shore – Singer, Actress, TV Star
Dinah Shore born February 29, 1916 in Winchester, Tennessee, as Francis Rose Shore. Her parents, Solomon and Anna Stein Shore, were Jewish immigrants from Russia. She had one older sister, Bessie. Little Rose was stricken with polio at age two. With her parents looking after her she recovered from polio, but was left with a mildly deformed foot and a slight limp.
She performed at a very young age at her father’s dry good store for their customers. Being in the dry goods business her father knew people better than they realized. The KKK paraded in Winchester and although they wore hoods, Solomon Shore recognized several of his customers by their shoes.
The Shore family moved to McMinnville, TN in 1924 where the family opened a department store. Rose put her mild disabilities out of her mind and she became a cheerleader and was active in sports. At age 14 she headed to Nashville one evening to perform as a torch singer at a nightclub. Her parents got wind of her plans and she found them sitting in the first row. They allowed her to perform and she was paid $10, but that incident put her professional career on hold.
Anna Shore died of a heart attack when Rose was 16 which prompted her to continue her education. She went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and she graduated in 1938 with a sociology degree.
She made her radio debut on WSM at the Grand Ole Opry. She went to New York City during breaks from school, but once she graduated she moved to New York permanently. She auditioned using the song “Dinah”. One disk jockey couldn’t remember her name and when he introduced her as “Dinah girl” the name stuck and she become Dinah Shore. She was hired by a radio station and she sang with Frank Sinatra then went on to sign a recording contract with RCA records in 1940.
Her career took off and she sang with all the hot performers of the time. She sang such songs as “Dear Hearts and Gentle People”, Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy”, “Buttons and Bows” but for many she will always be the Chevy Girl due to a commercial she filmed in 1952…’See the USA in your Chevrolet, America’s asking you to call…’ That song went on to be the theme song for the “Dinah Shore Chevy Show” which aired from 1957 until 1962.
She was married to George Montgomery for almost 20 years and that marriage produced a daughter, Melissa Ann and they later adopted a boy they named John. After her divorce from Montgomery her name was linked with Frank Sinatra, Dick Martin, General George Patton, and Eddie Fisher. She went on to have a long and very public relationship with Bert Reynolds who was 20 years younger than her. When that ended she was seen with Ron Ely (Tarzan), Andy Williams and Dean Martin. Wow, that lady got around with some big names!
Her last television special “Dinah Comes Home,” aired on TNN (The Nashville Network) in 1991. That show brought Dinah Shore’s career full circle, back to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry she first visited some 60 years earlier.
Dinah Shore died February 24, 1994, in Beverly Hills, CA of ovarian cancer 5 days short of her 78th birthday. A Street in Winchester, TN has been named in her honor.
Dinah Shore, a famous singer, actress and TV star with a Tennessee connection.
Sources:
Wikipedia.com
dinahshorefanclub.com
