BIOGRAPHY
"For the last six decades, Vikki Carr has been one of the world’s foremost classic entertainers. She has released over 60 best‑selling recordings, won three Grammy Awards, and honored with a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her remarkable voice and talent have brought audiences to tears and to their feet. Covering a variety of genres, from her first love of jazz, to mainstream pop and country, her pioneering crossover into Latin American music solidified her international stardom. Born in El Paso, Texas, but raised in the San Gabriel Valley of California, Vikki is the eldest of seven children and began performing at the age of four. She was signed to a contract with Liberty Records in 1961 and Grammy nominated for Best New Artist in 1963. She recorded, It Must Be Him, which charged up the charts in England. One year later, the single was released in the United States and earned Carr three Grammy Award nominations. After It Must Be Him came a string of hits including Grammy nominated With Pen in Hand, The Lesson, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You and For Once in My Life. Having worked in radio, television, film and theater, her well renowned technical skill brought accolades from some of the industry’s top artists. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley all praised her skill, talent and stage presence. Before Vikki became a darling of the White House, performing regularly at State Dinners, inaugural celebrations and Summits for various US Presidents, she toured Vietnam with Danny Kaye entertaining American troops and performed for England’s Queen Elizabeth II at a Royal Command Performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall.." from her website: vikkicar.com
I grew up watching Vikki Carr, among others, in the 1960's and 1970's. She is a very talented singer that is still active today.
In our cancel culture today we most often see the worst of actors and singers. Vikki Carr however displayed what we need to see in all public figures, their humanity!
She cared for her husband Pedro De Leon for many years, until his death in 2019 for dementia.
Let us all put aside our pride and selfish desires to help and minister to those around us.
The Look of Love - Vikki Carr & Burt Bacharach
Video from ARCHIVOS BOESMI
Singer Vikki Carr Shares Lessons in Caregiving and Love
For nearly 20 years, three-time Grammy winner Vikki Carr enjoyed a blissfully ordinary domestic life with her husband, Pedro De Leon, a family doctor. “We had an unbelievable time together,” says the singer. “He’d work all day caring for his patients, from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., and then we’d have an event [to go to] and he’d say, ‘I’ll just shower, honey, and I’ll be ready.’ And he always was. He took care of me.”
Until he couldn’t, and then Carr stepped in. It was De Leon’s sister who first noticed changes in his behavior—becoming confused and forgetful and having trouble writing prescriptions—in 2010 and 2011. “She was a nurse in his practice and had been with him for almost 50 years, and they were in the same room all the time, so she saw it early on,” Carr says.
In early 2012, at the age of 82, De Leon was officially diagnosed with dementia. But Carr says she was still in denial about what was happening. “I didn’t really realize what was coming until he sat down with me in the breakfast room one day, looked at me, and said, ‘I love you.’ I just said, ‘I love you too, darling.’ But he slammed his fist down on the table emphatically and said, ‘I love you. Whatever happens to me, I want you to never forget that I love you.’”.. from the article Singer Vikki Carr Shares Lessons in Caregiving and Love
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