JO STAFFORD - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED - HFSID 324822

JO STAFFORD
Signed note of the Grammy winner for a fan.
Autograph note signed: "For James/Sincerely/Jo Stafford" in black ink, 5x3. Stafford (1917-2008, born in Coalinga, California) was a Grammy-winning American singer and a favorite of World War II and Korean War servicemen, who gave her the nickname "G. I. Jo". Stafford originally wanted to become an opera singer, but instead joined her sisters Christine and Pauline in the country-western group the Stafford Sisters to help put bread on the table. She later sang with Tommy Dorsey's Pied Pipers and accompanied a young Frank Sinatra before striking out on her own. Stafford enjoyed a string of hits from the late 1930s to 1950, including 1952's double-gold single You Belong to Me as well as I'll Never Smile Again, I'll Be Seeing You, Haunted Heart, All the Things You Are and The Nearness of You. Her pure, nearly vibratoless voice that made her the darling of homesick soldiers, as did her U. S. O. tours and "V-Disc" recordings. But Stafford also revealed a gift for parody with the 1947 hillbilly spoof Temptation, recorded under the name "Cinderella G. Stump with Red Ingle and the Natural Seven". Stafford and her husband, conductor and arranger Paul Weston, later expanded this to a so-bad-it's-good lounge act under the names Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, with Weston fudging the chords and rhythm and Stafford singing sharp. Ironically, this novelty act earned Stafford her only Grammy in 1961, and for best comedy album no less, for Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris. Pencil notes (unknown hand) on verso. Fine condition.