My buddy Marjorie Clare, who has died aged 96, was, as Marjorie Daw, an elegantly glamorous and fashionable vocalist with the Oscar Rabin Orchestra within the Nineteen Fifties and on many BBC Gentle Programme broadcasts and recordings. She additionally sang on hit recordings of the 60s, together with Helen Shapiro’s Walkin’ Again to Happiness (1961) and Mary Hopkin’s Goodbye, written and produced by Paul McCartney (1969).
A superb musician, she was a fixture within the 60s lineup of the vocal quartet the Fraser Hayes 4, who offered the up-tempo musical interludes for 10 collection of the Kenneth Horne comedy automobiles, Past Our Ken and subsequently Around the Horne, on the BBC Gentle Programme, nonetheless repeated typically on BBC Radio 4 Further.
Born in Hackney, east London, to Robert Turtle and Millicent (nee Burriss), Marjorie spent her early years in South Africa, the place her father was an government for British and American Tobacco. At college she cherished singing hymns and have become a part of a gaggle known as the 4 Little Sisters, who entertained troopers injured within the second world struggle at Baragwanath hospital.
After attending Forest highschool, Johannesburg, she answered an advert for expertise in Selection journal and her first employment as an expert singer was with the Roy Martin Orchestra, as a member of his vocal group, the Melodeers, and subsequently as featured vocalist, broadcasting ceaselessly on South African radio.
Inspired by Roy Martin to attempt her luck in Britain Marjorie, (or Marge, as she was at all times recognized) returned to the UK in 1948, ultimately becoming a member of the Oscar Rabin Orchestra. Right here, she met the jazz drummer Kenny Clare and so they married in 1952. Kenny’s stellar profession was such that Marge fortunately took on the position of supporting him and taking care of their household, adopting twins, Susan and Lesley, in 1962.
Marge continued to work as a busy session singer on the London studio scene, in vocal teams run by Mike Sammes, Beryl Stott and Rita Williams. She recorded a solo EP, Personally, for Columbia Information in 1958. Marge may be seen in a DVD launch of the Rank Organisation’s function For the Document, backing the teenage Shapiro on Walkin’ Again to Happiness (“whoopah, oh yeah, yeah”) filmed at EMI’s Abbey Street studios. Marge additionally made an look in a musical sketch in an early Morecambe and Smart TV present in 1963.
After elevating her household in London and Surrey, Marge relocated to East Grinstead, West Sussex, the place she performed a key position within the upbringing of her grandchildren and volunteered at their faculty. She moved to Worthing in 2001, an space to which lots of her musician buddies had retired. She cherished walks on the ocean entrance together with her canine, crosswords, studying and utilizing her iPad to communicate with family and friends.
Kenny died in 1985 and her daughters in 1990 and 1993. She is survived by her grandchildren, Gabrielle and Theo, and great-granddaughter, Lily.
