Dearest Doris We Salute The Girl Next Door

Loves and Losses on Her Sentimental Journey

All-American movie icon Doris Day has passed away at her Carmel Valley, California, home, aged 97, surrounded by close friends and her beloved animals.

“Day had been in excellent physical health for her age, until recently contracting a serious case of pneumonia, resulting in her death,” the Doris Day Foundation for Animals said.

The Que Será, Será singer was born Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922. She originally dreamed of becoming a dancer, but had to abandon this after a car accident left her with a broken right leg.

Her mother arranged singing lessons instead and after a few months, young Doris “discovered a talent I didn’t know I had.” She landed a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1947 and her first numberone hit, Sentimental Journey, became her signature tune.

At 19, she married trombonist Al Jorden and the couple had a son, Terry. Sadly, Al turned out to be jealous and violent, and Doris was divorced by age 20.

A second marriage to saxophonist George Weidler also ended in divorce in 1949.

Despite her rocky personal life, Doris forged a movie career with 1951’s I’ll See You in My Dreams and 1953’s Calamity Jane. By 1956, Alfred Hitchcock came calling, casting her opposite James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much.