American singer and actress Helen Grayco most famous for appearances with her husband Spike Jones on The Spike Jones Show in the 1950s and the 1960s has died aged 97.
Grayco and Spike Jones got married on July 18, 1949 in Beverly Hills, California and their marriage produced three children: producer Spike Jones, Jr., Grammy award-winning recording engineer Leslie Ann Jones, and Gina Jones.
Their marriage lasted until Jones’s death on May 1, 1965 from emphysema (a lung condition that causes shortness of breath), after which she married Bill Rosen, a restaurant owner who sadly died in 2002.
Before meeting Spike Jones, Grayco worked with the bands of Chuck Cascalas, Chuck Cabot, and Red Nichols. Her big break came when she began travelling with Stan Kenton’s band.
At the time, she was attending high school and she went with Kenton on a cross-country bus tour. The tour took Grayco from Los Angeles to the Roseland Ballroom in New York City.
Grayco began singing in Tacoma when she was just 4 years old and at age 8, she sang on The Carnival Hour, a variety show on radio station KHJ in Los Angeles.
She was then hired to appear on a local variety program in Seattle, Washington. Bing Crosby and his brothers, who were, like Grayco, all natives of Tacoma, heard her on the program and reportedly Crosby said that “…she sings Hollywood!” Crosby gave her a job in Hollywood and soon her family moved to Los Angeles.
Grayco is survived by her three children; producer Spike Jones, Jr., Grammy award-winning recording engineer Leslie Ann Jones, and Gina Jones.