Connie Francis
‘Fairly Little Child’ Singer Useless at 87
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Singer Connie Francis, finest identified for her lately viral monitor “Fairly Little Child” in addition to “Silly Cupid,” has died.
Connie’s dying was confirmed by her longtime pal Ron Roberts on Thursday by way of Fb — simply 2 weeks after TMZ broke the information she was within the ICU for unknown medical points.
Ron introduced Connie handed Wednesday, including … “I do know that Connie would approve that her followers are among the many first to study of this unhappy information.”
He stated extra particulars will observe, however has not introduced something additional.
Connie had a prolific singing profession, rising to turn into one of the crucial standard singers within the Nineteen Fifties and early Nineteen Sixties. She had had a number of High 10 singles corresponding to “Who’s Sorry Now?,” “Do not Break The Coronary heart That Loves You,” “My Coronary heart Has A Thoughts Of Its Personal” and “The place the Boys Are”.
She was the primary girl to achieve the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Sizzling 100 due to her 1960 hit “All people’s Any individual’s Idiot.”
Although her profession is widely known, it was practically a miss. Connie was about to be dropped by her document label, MGM Information, in 1957 when her father satisfied her to document a model of “Who’s Sorry Now?” as a last-ditch effort to get her on the charts — and it skyrocketed her into success.
With the skilled success got here some private woes, as Connie was raped in a Lengthy Island motel room in 1974 and briefly misplaced her voice 3 years later as a consequence of a nasal surgical procedure. And only a few years after in 1981, her brother George was murdered by the mafia.
She was prepared for a profession comeback in 1981 — however her music did not resonate with followers, which severely impacted her psychological well being. Her fearful father had her dedicated to a number of psychological well being establishments, and in 1984, she survived a suicide try — the identical 12 months she printed her first memoir, “Who’s Sorry Now?”
After overcoming her psychological well being struggles, Connie used her hardships to assist others, even teaming up with Ronald Reagan‘s administration on a violent crime job pressure and changing into an advocate for rape and trauma victims.
As we reported, Connie had been hospitalized in early July, telling followers in a submit shared by Ron that she was “again within the hospital” to bear assessments to find out why she was feeling “excessive ache.”
On July 9, Ron confirmed she was nonetheless in hospital care and and nonetheless feeling discomfort.
Connie was 87. She is survived by her adopted son, Joseph Garzilli Jr.
RIP.