(JTA) — Eydie Gorme, who won Grammy Awards singing solo and with her husband, Steve Lawrence, has died.
Gorme died at a Las Vegas hospital on Saturday following a brief illness, according to a statement by her spokesman. She was 84.
The statement said she was “surrounded by her husband, son and other loved ones at the time of her death.”
Gorme, whose 1963 song “Blame It on the Bossa Nova” was her biggest hit and won her a Grammy nomination, performed in nightclubs, and as both a solo artist and with Lawrence since the mid-1950s. They performed in Las Vegas for many years. Gorme retired in 2009.
The couple had their own television variety show, “The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Show,” until Lawrence entered the Army for two years and Gorme went on the nightclub circuit.
“Eydie has been my partner onstage and in life for more than 55 years,” Lawrence said in a statement. “I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time.”
Gorme and Lawrence met in 1953 on a local program hosted by Steve Allen and later were regular cast members on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” hosted by Allen, when it began in 1954. They married in 1957.
Her first album with Lawrence, “We Got Us,” won a Grammy Award in 1960. She also won a 1967 Grammy for “If He Walked Into My Life.” In 1968, the couple starred in the Broadway musical “Golden Rainbow.”
Gorme was born Edith Garmezano to Sephardic Jewish parents in New York City. Her father was a tailor from Sicily and her mother was from Turkey.
She worked as a Spanish-language interpreter and later recorded in Spanish. Her song “Amor” became a hit throughout Latin America.
Gorme and Lawrence also had a son who died in his 20s of a heart condition.
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