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Bruce Sylvester
Jazz, blues, pop, country -- Kay Starr sang it all, topping the singles charts with "Wheel Of Fortune" (1952) and "Rock And Roll Waltz" (1956). CDs of her vintage sides are abundantly available via Exemplar (Capitol LPs), Collectables (RCA LPs), Taragon (RCA singles) and Collectors' Choice (a Starr smorgasbord).
Born July 21, 1922, in Daugherty, Okla., she's 80 now. Two hip replacements, degenerative arthritis and, at times, a back brace haven't quieted her hearty, husky voice. Here's an abridged transcript of a jovial phone chat -- laced with her singing, piano playing and hilarious chicken imitation -- from her Los Angeles home.
It's often reported that you spent some of your childhood on an Indian reservation .
I'm Cherokee, Choctaw, Iroquois and Irish, but I never lived on an Indian reservation. My daddy worked for the Texas Automatic Sprinkler Company. They moved him so often I think we lived in every state about 15 minutes.
How about the legend that as a child, you gave your mother's chickens a concert?
My job was to feed the chickens. I noticed that the roosting area kept going up and up like a Greek theater. I'd be singing and humming, and the chickens would look at me and go cluck-cluck. [She imitates chicken sounds.] I thought, "Well, here's my audience." So I sat on an apple box and sang every song I knew to those chickens. I don't know if I caused them not to lay so many eggs, but my mother did ask me not to sing so much.
What was singing with Joe Venuti like while your family lived in Memphis?
I was 16 and could only sing with the band in...