Actress and singer Kathryn Crosby, 90, died on Sept. 20. The second wife (and widow) of Bing Crosby, the perky Texan started her career as Kathryn Grant, and beginning in 1953 appeared in small roles (Rear Window, Forever Female, Tight Spot). “I was 19,” she recalled, “I had just lost the Miss Texas contest . . . So my mother and I flew to Hollywood. We stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. That was Sunday. Monday, we went to Paramount. On Wednesday, I tested with Bill Holden. And on Friday, I signed a seven-year contract. A few months later, I met Bing Crosby. And then the story began.” She and Crosby married in 1957 (he died 20 years later), and she cut back on her acting (though she appeared on her husband’s TV specials). Among her post-marriage films were Operation Mad Ball, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Anatomy of a Murder, and The Big Circus. “I listen to some of the old Hollywood Palace shows,” Crosby said, “and when we sang together, [Bing] adjusted his voice. So it was very soft because I have a voice the size of a teacup. And so my voice sounded fine with him. He always made everyone else look so good on his shows.”
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