Phyllis McGuire, the lead singer and last remaining member of the 1950s trio known as McGuire Sisters, died at her Las Vegas home on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. She was 89 years old.
McGuire’s death was confirmed to the Times by the Palm Eastern Mortuary, but no cause of death was announced.
“I’m not afraid to live and I’m not afraid to die,” McGuire told Vanity Fair in 1989. “You only live once, and I’m going to live it to the fullest, until I leave. And I will continue to sing as long as anyone wants. “
The singer’s path to fame began when Coral Records signed with her and her two sisters, Christine and Dorothy McGuire, a contract with a record label in 1952. That year, they also appeared on “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts”, winning the contest . After their success on the show, the three vocalists were hired to perform on variety shows and traveled around the country while their popularity soared.
The sisters’ pop cover of the 1954 song “Sincerely”, originally recorded by The Moonglows, topped the Billboard US song chart for six weeks in 1955. It was the first of their songs to reach the top of the charts, followed in 1958 for the interpretation of the sisters of “Sugartime”.
The two No. 1 singles sold more than a million copies, as did their 1956 song “Picnic”. Their rapid growth took the sisters to a stature level worthy of representing a king – or a queen. They sang for Queen Elizabeth II and five presidents over her long career.
The sisters remained popular for the rest of the 1950s, but the 1960s found the trio dealing with the optics of Phyllis McGuire’s connections with the Mafia. The reports suggested that she had been romantically involved with mobster Sam Giancana from Chicago, although she insisted it was just a platonic relationship.
Before a grand jury in 1965, McGuire testified that she knew that Giancana was a criminal, although she did not know specific details of his activities.
1968 marked a temporary pause in the group’s performances, with McGuire Sisters’ last appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”. Phyllis McGuire continued her solo career during that time, although she started releasing songs on her own in 1964.
She and her sisters got together for group performances again in 1985, leading to nearly two more decades of performances in Las Vegas and other major cities. In 1994, while still singing as a group, the McGuire sisters were introduced to the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Around that time, the group began to appear less frequently, although it still made presentations as a group over the next decade. His final large-scale performance came on the 2004 PBS special, “Magic Moments: The Best of ’50s Pop”. Phyllis McGuire, the youngest of the trio, was 70 at the time.
McGuire’s sister Dorothy died in 2012 at the age of 84, while Christine died in 2018 at 92.