Dinah Shore

 Dinah Shore, born Frances Rose Shore (February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994)

She reached the height of her popularity as a recording artist during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 1950s, but achieved even greater success a decade later, in television, mainly as hostess of a series of variety programs for Chevrolet. After failing singing auditions for the bands of Benny Goodman and both Jimmy Dorsey and his brother Tommy Dorsey, Shore struck out on her own to become the first singer of her era to achieve huge solo success. She had a string of 80 charted popular hits, spanning the years 1940 to 1957, and after appearing in a handful of feature films went on to a four-decade career in American television, starring in her own music and variety shows from 1951 through 1963 and hosting two talk shows in the 1970s. TV Guide magazine ranked her at #16 on their list of the top fifty television stars of all time. Shore was married to actor George Montgomery from 1943 to 1962, ending in divorce.. After her marriage to Montgomery, she was briefly married to Maurice Smith. Romances of the later 1960s involved comedian Dick Martin, singer Eddie Fisher, and actor Rod Taylor. In the early 1970's, Shore had a long and happy public romance with actor Burt Reynolds who was twenty years her junior.

Shore, who played golf, was a longtime supporter of women's professional golf. In 1972, she helped found the Colgate Dinah Shore golf tournament, which in its current identity as the ANA Inspiration remains one of the major golf tournaments on the LPGA Tour. The tournament is held each spring near Shore's former home in Rancho Mirage, California. In the spring of 1993, Shore was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died of the disease on February 24, 1994, at her home in Beverly Hills, California, five days before her 78th birthday. She was cremated that same day, and her ashes were divided between two memorial sites (Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, and Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cathedral City, both in California).