God's Choir Gets New Member

RIP   Vic Damone, 89
  6/12/1928 - 2/11/18

He has joined Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra in ?  The Celestial Singers?

He was forced to drop out of high school when his father, an electrician, suffered a work-related injury.  He got a job as an usher and elevator operator and when Perry Como boarded his elevator, he stopped it between floors and sang to Como who encouraged me.  Years later he would name his only son "Perry" as a thank you.

He changed his own name from Vito Rocco Farinola (birth name) to Vic Damone, Damone being his mother's maiden name.

Apparently he was as bold at marriage as he was at buttonholing Perry Como in an elevator, he married five times.

1.  Pier Angeli who was having a notable affair with James Dean - until she left him for Damone.  1954 to 1958

2.  Judith Rawlins 1963 - 1971  They had three daughters and a son who died age 59 of lymphoma

3.  Becky Ann Jones  1974-1982

4.  Diahann Carroll 1987-1996

5.  Rena Rowan 1998, died in 2016.

He and Rowan lived in Florida; she died there.  Damone was said not to be in the best of healthy in 2002 when he had a stroke, followed by another dip in health in 2008.

Damone as a singer was admired by his heroes Perry Como and Frank Sinatra.  I hope they're all putting together a play list in Heaven.