Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien OBE, known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a significant singer of blue-eyed soul, pop, and dramatic ballads, with French chanson, country, and jazz also in her repertoire.
Meet Gerard O’Brien, Kay O’Brien
Springfield was born Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien on 16 April 1939 in West Hampstead, the second child of Gerard Anthony ‘OB’ O’Brien (1904–1979) and Catherine Anne ‘Kay’ O’Brien (née Ryle; 1900–1974), both of Irish descent.
Springfield’s elder brother, Dionysius Patrick O’Brien (2 July 1934–27 July 2022), was later known as Tom Springfield.
Her father, who had been raised in British India, worked as a tax accountant and consultant. Her mother came from an Irish family originally from Tralee, County Kerry, that included a number of journalists.
Springfield was brought up in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, until the early 1950s and later lived in Ealing in west London. She attended St Anne’s Convent School, Northfields, a traditional all-girl school.
The comfortable middle-class upbringing was disturbed by dysfunctional tendencies in the family: her father’s perfectionism and her mother’s frustrations sometimes resulted in food-throwing incidents.