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Frances Newbern Langford (4 April, 1913 – 11
July, 2005) was a successful singer and
entertainer during the "Golden Age of Radio", who
also made occasional film appearances.

Born in Lakeland, Florida, as Frances Newbern,
Langford originally trained as an opera|opera
singer.   While a young girl she required surgery
on her throat, and as a result was forced to
change her vocal style to a more contemporary big
band, popular music style.  She began singing for
radio during the early 1930s, and was heard by
Rudy Vallee, who invited her to become a regular
on his radio show.  She was a well-known radio
performer before making her film debut in Every
Night at Eight in 1935, in which she introduced
one of her most popular songs, "I'm In The Mood
For Love".  From 1935 until 1938 she was a regular
performer on Dick Powell's radio show.

From 1936 she began appearing frequently in films
such as Broadway Melody of 1936 (1936) and Yankee
Doodle Dandy (1942) with James Cagney, in which
she performed the popular song "Over There".

From 1941 she worked on Bob Hope's radio show, and
during World War II she performed frequently with
Hope entertaining troops.  Her association with
Hope continued into the 1980s; in 1989 she joined
him for a USO tour.  

She worked for several years in the late 1940s on
Spike Jones' show before being teamed with Don
Ameche in 1951 for a shortlived television
program, The Frances Langford/Don Ameche Show. 
She and Ameche later enjoyed outstanding success
with a comedy radio series The Bickersons. 

Langford was the host of two self titled variety
television programs, Frances Langford Presents
(1959) and The Frances Langford Show (1960). 

She married three times.  Her first husband, from
1934 until 1955, was the actor Jon Hall. In 1955,
she married outboard motor heir Ralph Evinrude.
They moved to her estate in Jensen Beach, Florida
and opened the Outrigger Resort where Langford
frequently performed.  Evinrude died in 1986. In
1994 she married Harold Stuart, who had been
assistant secretary of the United States Air Force
under Harry S. Truman|President Harry S. Truman. 

Although her greatest successes were in radio, her
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1500 Vine
Street, acknowledges her contribution to Motion
Pictures. 

She died at her Jensen Beach, Florida home after
suffering from congestive heart failure, aged 92.

==External links==
*imdb name|id=0486387|name= Frances Langford
*http://www.enter.net/~rocketeer/13ththrush.html
Frances Langford biographical fansite