Phyllis McGuire, of the 1950s singers’ trio, the McGuire Sisters, died on Tuesday at the age of 89 at her Las Vegas mansion.
She was the youngest and the last survivor in the group, dying exactly two years and a day after her sister Christine.
The Palm Eastern morgue confirmed his death to the New York Times on New Year’s Eve without stating a specific cause.
Dear dead: Phyllis McGuire of the 1950s singers’ trio, the McGuire sisters, died on Tuesday at the age of 89 at her home in Las Vegas; pictured in 2007
Backwards to 1955: She was the youngest and the last survivor of the group; she is portrayed between her sisters Christine (left) and Dorothy (right)
She and her sisters were a showbiz sensation – but her totally clean American image was tainted by Phyllis’s affair with the notorious mobster Sam Giancana.
Phyllis was born on Valentine’s Day 1931 and was just four when she started singing with her sisters Dorothy and Christine as they grew up in the small town of Ohio.
They performed at the church where their mother Lillie served as minister and then stormed places like military bases during World War II.
However, the year they became stars was in 1952 – they won a contract with the record label Coral and got a sweeping response from the public to their attempt to choose Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.
The McGuire sisters’ totally clean image was tarnished by Phyllis’s case with the notorious mobster Sam Giancana; they are photographed in London in 1961
That year, Phyllis married a radio personality named Neal Van Ells, but the marriage fell apart in 1956.
McGuire Sisters’ most successful recordings were Sugartime, Sincerely and Picnic, all released in the mid-1950s.
With their coordinated costumes and choreography, they became regular favorites on the variety TV circuit, including The Ed Sullivan Show.
Her troubles started one night in 1959, when she was at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas for a singer engagement with her sisters.
Seen in New York: his most successful recordings were Sugartime, Sincerely and Picnic, all from the mid-1950s; they are photographed at the nightclub El Morocco in Manhattan in 1956
Sam Giancana saw her on stage and fell in love with her, instructing the field chief to ‘eat the marker’ about the thousands of dollars in debt she had on blackjack tables.
Their sizzling romance became infamous, creating obstacles in the McGuire sisters’ career during the 1960s.
‘When I met him, I didn’t know who he was, and he wasn’t married and I was a single woman, and from the way I was raised, there was nothing wrong with that. And it wasn’t until some time later that I really discovered who he was, and I was already in love, ‘Phyllis insisted to Barbara Walters decades later.
She tried to leave him ‘a few times’, because ‘it was really damaging my career and really breaking my parents’ hearts, and I also had an ultimatum from my sister’s husband that if it didn’t end, the trio would end. It was very painful to think about it, so I tried it twice, but it didn’t work.
Later life: After the trio split up in 1968, Dorothy and Christine became housewives and Phyllis embarked on a solo career; they are portrayed acting on TV in 1966
At one point, she and Sam disembarked from a plane in Chicago, site of their mob operation, and were ambushed by the FBI.
To avoid a subpoena, Phyllis consented to be interviewed at that time, and while she was being taken apart, Sam was held up holding her purse, to the amusement of the agents who were nearby.
“I know everything about the Kennedys and Phyllis knows a lot more about the Kennedys and one of these days we are going to tell you everything,” he thundered according to the FBI report.
During the Kennedy administration, Sam participated in a CIA conspiracy to assassinate Fidel Castro. Sam and the American president also had a mutual lover, Judith Exner.
Split: ‘Oh, we lost our confidence at different times – me less than Dorothy and Christine,’ Phyllis told Dominick Dunne; she is portrayed on the Joey Bishop Show in 1968
In 1963, Phyllis had a small part in the film Come Blow Your Horn, led by Kennedy’s former friend Frank Sinatra.
‘He is the most talented person, but the most contradictory. He surrounded himself with an entourage that punched him to death. How can you expand yourself surrounded by yes-men? ‘she told Dominick Dunne of Vanity Fair in the late 1980s.
– I stayed at his house and he bothered me to death. He tells the stories of sa-ame that he tells for years, and all I ever heard were his records, which he played indefinitely, ‘she recalled.
In the late 1960s, the McGuire Sisters were lost, giving a farewell performance to The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 and then breaking up.
It seems that in the old days: she met on stage with Dorothy and Christine in 1986 for a series of sporadic public appearances; pictured in 1989
Dorothy and Christine abandoned public life entirely to become housewives, but Phyllis pursued a solo career singing live.
‘Oh, we lost our confidence at different times – me less than Dorothy and Christine. Dorothy got married. Christine got married. They had guilt trips thinking they should be home with their kids, ”she told Dominick.
A year before the group split, it bought its 55,000-square-foot property in Las Vegas with money it allocated to its oil and gas investments.
Its ornaments included gold swan-shaped bathroom accessories, a 19th-century chandelier, a swan moat and a 15-meter-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.
Only the best: in 1963 Phyllis also had a small part in the movie Come Blow Your Horn, led by Kennedy’s former friend Frank Sinatra
Phyllis spent a lot of time involved with ‘Tiger Mike’ Davis, who went from being a chauffeur to an oil and gas mogul and was known as the ‘most grumpy boss in the world’.
She was still hanging out with Sam Giancana when she first caught Tiger Mike’s attention in the 1960s.
The situation was so alarming for her that she once said to Mike, ‘You better stay away from me. Do you want to end up at the bottom of Lake Mead? ‘
Phyllis, who was friends with Mike’s first wife, Helen Bonfils, had a long romance with him, but they never married and she never had children.
Everything was gone: Dorothy ended up dying in 2012 at the age of 84 and Christine, who was the oldest of the trio, followed her six years later, at 92; the three sisters are portrayed in 1997
She met on stage with Dorothy and Christine in 1986 for a series of sporadic public appearances in the early 21st century.
In 1995, Phyllis was played by Mary Louise Parker in an HBO film about the Giancana case called Sugartime, after the success of the McGuire Sisters album.
Dorothy died in 2012 at the age of 84 and Christine, who was the oldest of the trio, followed her six years later, at 92.
Phyllis told Vanity Fair in the 1980s: ‘I’m not afraid to live and I’m not afraid to die. You only live once and I will live it to the fullest, until I leave. ‘