In the years that followed she continued to support veterans’ causes and raise money for research on cancer and cystic fibrosis. Lynn was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1975. ![]() “Thank you for the Music,” but fans still really wanted to hear the wartime classics. 1 hit in 1954.Īfter staying away from the business for years, she had a 1970s comeback single “Don’t You Remember When” and even covered Abba’s Lynn’s career flourished in the 1950s, peaking with “My Son, My Son,” a No. Her “Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart” in 1952 became the first record by an English artist to top the American Billboard charts, staying there for nine weeks. While Lynn is best remembered for her work during the war, she had great success during the post-war years. Lynn appeared in a handful of films: “We’ll Meet Again” (1942), playing a young dancer who discovers her singing voice “Rhythm Serenade” (1943), in which she plays a woman who joins the Women’s Royal Navy and organizes a nursery in a munitions factory and “One Exciting Night” (1944), a comedy about a singer who is mistakenly caught up in a kidnapping. She married band musician Harry Lewis in 1941, and he went on to manage her career. By 17 she was a band singer, and at 21 - when the war started - she was a known performer. She started singing in social clubs at age 7 and dropped out of school by 11 when she started touring Britain with a traveling variety show. She took her stage name from her grandmother’s maiden name. And the boys would just come out of the jungle and sit there for hours waiting until we arrived and then slip back in once we’d left.”Ī plumber’s daughter, Vera Margaret Welch was born on March 20, 1917, in London’s blue-collar East Ham neighborhood. “I entertained audiences from 2,000 to 6,000. “What they needed was a contact from home,” she said. Years later, she reflected on time spent with soldiers abroad. Lynn earned her nickname, “The Forces’ Sweetheart,” after coming top in a 1939 Daily Express poll that asked servicemen to name their favorite musical artists. “We will be with our friends again we will be with our families again we will meet again.” “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return,” the queen said. The monarch played on the song’s theme, promising that loved ones would be reunited in the end after being separated by the virus. In a reflection of her enduring appeal, Queen Elizabeth II also invoked the words of Lynn’s signature song as she addressed the nation in lockdown. 1, despite competition from the release of remastered Beatles’ albums.Īmid this year’s coronavirus outbreak, Lynn and opera singer Katherine Jenkins released a charity version of “We’ll Meet Again.” The public found comfort in her words of hope, which resonated in the locked-down country. In September 2009, long after her retirement, Lynn topped the British album chart with a best hits collection titled “We’ll Meet Again - The Very Best of Vera Lynn.” It reached No. And everybody, if they wanted to, they could stay in the theater and the show would go on.” “You imagined all the theaters closing down, which didn’t happen except when the sirens sounded. “When war first started, when it was declared, I thought, ‘Well there goes my career.’ You know, I shall finish up in a factory or the army or somewhere,” she recalled. Lynn had thought the war would doom her chance of success. “Winston Churchill was my opening act,” she once said. The half-hour program came on during the highly coveted slot following the Sunday night news. Lynn hosted a wildly popular BBC radio show during the war called “Sincerely Yours” in which she sent messages to British troops abroad and performed the songs they requested. Her voice will live on to lift the hearts of generations to come.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said her “charm and magical voice entranced and uplifted our country in some of our darkest hours. Tributes poured in from political leaders, entertainers, veterans and thousands of fans. “I was somebody that they could associate with,” she once told The Associated Press. ![]() Lynn possessed a down-to-earth appeal, reminding servicemen of the ones they left behind. “Dame Vera Lynn, who lived in Ditchling, East Sussex, passed away earlier today, 18 June 2020, surrounded by her close family.” “The family are deeply saddened to announce the passing of one of Britain’s best-loved entertainers at the age of 103,” her family said in a statement. WATCH: In Normandy, gratitude and grief ahead of D-Day’s 75th anniversary LONDON (AP) - Dame Vera Lynn, the endearingly popular “Forces’ Sweetheart” who serenaded British troops abroad during World War II, has died at 103.ĭuring the war and long after, Lynn got crowds singing, smiling and crying with sentimental favorites such as “We’ll Meet Again,” and “The White Cliffs of Dover.”
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