Anita Kerr was a vocalist, music arranger, and producer. Kerr was born Anita Jean Grilli in Memphis on October 31, 1927, and by the age of 14, she was a staff pianist for Memphis station WREC.
The vocal group named after her first performed together in 1948 before signing with Decca in 1951.
Anita Kerr was instrumental in creating the smoother, strings-and-harmonies washed-out sound.
Anita Kerr died on October 10, 2022, at the age of 94, in Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland. Her cause of death is unknown. She was married to Alex Grob and had two daughters.
Kerr’s imprint on the Nashville scene was so strong that it’s been reported that her voice appeared on one-quarter of all country singles recorded there at one point.
She won three Grammy Awards with the group in just two years, for 1965 We Dig Mancini LP, the same year’s Southland Favorites album by gospel singer George Beverly Shea, to which the Singers contributed, and the 1966 single “A Man and a Woman.”