Kathryn Crosby

For the woman crowned Miss Alabama 2003, see Catherine Crosby.
Kathryn Crosby

Bing and Kathryn on his 1976 Christmas special.
Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff
(1933-11-25) November 25, 1933
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Other names Kathryn Grandstaff
Kathryn Grant
Kathryn Crosby
Years active 1953–2009
Spouse(s) Bing Crosby (1957–1977; his death)
Maurice William Sullivan
(2000–2010; his death)
Children Harry Crosby
Nathaniel Crosby
Mary Crosby

Kathryn Crosby (born November 25, 1933) is an American former actress and singer who performed in films under the stage-names Kathryn Grant and Kathryn Grandstaff.[1]

Life and career

Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff in Houston, Texas, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1955. Two years later she became Bing Crosby's second wife, being more than thirty years his junior. The couple had three children, Harry, Mary Frances, and Nathaniel.[2] She appeared as a guest star on her husband's 1964–1965 ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show.

She largely retired after their marriage, but did have a featured role in the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959). She also played the part of "Mama Bear" alongside her husband and children in Goldilocks and co-starred with Jack Lemmon in the comedy Operation Mad Ball (1957), with Tony Curtis in the drama Mister Cory (1957) and as a trapeze artist in The Big Circus (1959).

In the mid-1970s, she hosted The Kathryn Crosby Show, a 30-minute local talk-show on KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Husband Bing appeared as a guest occasionally.

Since Bing Crosby's death in 1977, she has taken on a few smaller roles and the lead in the short-lived 1996 Broadway musical State Fair.

For 16 years ending in 2001, Crosby hosted the Crosby National Golf Tournament at Bermuda Run Country Club in Bermuda Run, North Carolina. A nearby bridge carrying U.S. Route 158 over the Yadkin River is named for Kathryn Crosby.[3]

On November 4, 2010, Crosby was seriously injured in an automobile accident in the Sierra Nevada that killed her 85-year-old second husband, Maurice William Sullivan, whom she had married in 2000.[4]

Filmography

Crosby with Vince Edwards as a guest star on Ben Casey, 1965.

References

  1. ↑ "Kathryn Grant". Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  2. ↑ Bing Crosby biography at the Wayback Machine (archived October 28, 2009)
  3. ↑ Jim Sparks, "Crews to Start Work on Bridge," Winston-Salem Journal, November 21, 2007.
  4. ↑ Martin Griffith (December 2, 2010). "Bing Crosby's widow recovering from accident". Associated Press.
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