LEGENDARY big-band singer Louise Tobin, who is said to have assisted in the discovery of music icon Frank Sinatra, has died at 104.
Tobin was a highly popular singer during the 1930s and 1940s alongside her former husband and trumpet player, the late Harry James, per The Washington Post.
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Tobin allegedly told James that she had heard a young Sinatra singing on the radio and insisted on hiring him.
“I heard this boy singing, and I thought, ‘There’s a fair singer!’ ” she told jazz historian Will Friedwald.
“So I woke Harry and said, ‘Honey, you might want to hear this kid on the radio. The boy singer on this show sounds pretty good.’ That was the end of it, as far as I was concerned.”
According to The Washington Post, James listened to a broadcast of Sinatra singing, who was a waiter at the time, the next evening after his conversation with Tobin.
He then actively sought out young Sinatra at the Rustic Roadhouse Cabin in New Jersey.
Interestingly enough, Sinatra wasn’t a singer according to the club’s manager, but an MC who ‘sings a little bit.’
James went on to offer Sinatra an annual contract of about $75 per week to join the band with himself and Tobin and sing.
Tobin had told the Dallas Morning News that she gave James all of the credit for landing Sinatra despite her initial discovery.
Kevin Mooney, Tobin’s biographer on the book, Texas Jazz Singer: Louise Tobin in the Golden Age of Swing and Beyond, confirmed her death but has yet to make comment regarding the cause.
Tobin notably recorded hits of her own during her time in the music industry, including songs like There’ll Be Some Changes Made and I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.
She continued to perform into the 1960s as well, after married jazz clarinetist Michael “Peanuts” Hucko in 1967, where she would sing alongside him for 30 more years.
The late music star’s full name is Mary Louise Tobin, and she grew up in Denton, Texas alongside 11 siblings and a widowed mother.
Tobin is survived by two sons, Harry James Jr. and Jerin Timothyray ‘Tim’ James; along with multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
When speaking about her early career in her teens during the 1930s, Tobin explained that she was simply happy to not have to do chores.
“My fulfillment was not to have to wash dishes,” she noted.