Singer, Actress, Television Personality. She gained fame as a 20th-century American entertainer who had a long career on screen, radio, and television. Dinah Shore's 55 years in show business included 75 hits songs recorded between 1940 and 1955, such as "Dear Hearts and Gentle People," "Buttons and Bows," "Blues in the Night," "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To," "I'll Walk Alone," and "I Wish I Didn't Love You So." She earned a Peabody Award, 10 Emmy Awards, and three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: radio, recordings, and television. She received a Trailblazer Award for American song at the 1956 Golden Globes and was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1977 for Best Actress in Television Comedy or Musical. Born Francis Rose Shore into a Jewish household, her parents were Russian immigrants, Solomon, a businessman, and Anna Stein Shore. Called "Fanny," she recovered from a bout with polio at age eighteen months, which left her with an impaired right foot with a limp. She attended Nashville's Hume-Fogg High School, where she was a cheerleader and excelled in athletics. Sports would be a lifelong interest of hers. After high school, she enrolled at Vanderbilt University, becoming head of her sorority, active in golf and tennis, and graduated in 1938. She studied voice and acting lessons from a tutor and often sang on the radio station WSM Nashville. Even with a degree in sociology from Vanderbilt, she was determined to have a career in show business and relocate to New York City, where she encountered numerous audition rejections. During this time period, she changed her name to Dinah Shore. In 1939, she became noticed singing with a young amateur by the name of Frank Sinatra with the Xavier Cugat's Orchestra. She was a regular guest on Eddie Cantor's radio program for three years. In 1940, she signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and her first recording, "Yes, My Darling Daughter", with Xavier Cugat's orchestra, sold a million copies. During World War II, she recorded many hit records while becoming a mainstay on the Armed Forces Radio network and even had her own radio show. She further helped the war effort by going overseas to entertain American troops. During the war, she married for the first time to actor George Montgomery only days before he left for an enlistment in the Army Air Force. For her service in USOs, she was awarded the USO Medallion. Her attempts at a film career were mediocre, but she had some success in musical films such as "Belle of the Yukon" and "Up in Arms" in 1944 and "Till the Clouds Roll By" in 1946. Her voice was used in Walt Disney's animated productions "Make Mine Music" in 1946 and "Fun and Fancy Free" in 1947. With the new media of television, she excelled from 1951 to 1957 as the host of "The Dinah Shore Show" and was credited as the first woman to host her own variety show. From October 1956 to May 1963, she hosted "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show," singing "See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet" and throwing a kiss to her television audience at the end of every show. During the 1950s and 1960s, she appeared four times in a Gallup Poll as one of the most admired women in the world. With the close of the show in 1963, her career declined, with her only making guest appearances on other television series. The same year, she and her husband of nearly 20 years, George Montgomery, had a very bitter, much-publicized divorce. The couple had a daughter and an adopted son. Weeks after the divorce, she married professional tennis player Maurice F. Smith and divorced him seven months later. She rallied professionally with the premier of the successful NBC daytime talk and variety show from 1970 to 1974, "Dinah's Place," which was followed by "Dinah!" from 1974 to 1979, and "Dinah and Friend" from 1979 to 1984. From 1989 to 1991, she had her final weekly television show called "A Conversation With Dinah," in which she interviewed Hollywood stars and politicians. She had a long relationship with the 20-year-younger Burt Reynolds, an actor who had been a guest on "A Conversation With Dinah." In late 1991, she experienced stomach pains which was diagnosed as ovarian cancer. She had treatment but succumbed to the disease three years later. After her remains were cremated, a portion of her ashes were placed in a wall crypt at Hillside Memorial Park and another at Forest Lawn Cemetery. The busy roadway between Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City was named Dinah Shore Drive in her honor. Another Dinah Shore Drive is located in her hometown of Winchester. She gave women's professional golf a major boost by establishing the LPGA tournament that bore the name of "Colgate Dinah Shore Tournament" but has since been renamed as "Nabisco Tournament." A bronze life-size statue of Shore holding a golf club was erected on the golf course at the 18th hole at Mission Hills Country Club in Mirage, California.