Helen Grayco September 20, 1924 – August 20, 2022, Mrs. Spike Jones

Helen Grayco was most famous for appearances with her husband’s band, Spike Jones & The City Slickers. Grayco was born Helen Greco on September 20, 1924, in Tacoma. At age 4, Grayco began singing in Tacoma. In 1932, at age eight, Grayco 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.

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. She was attending high school at the time 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 first met bandleader Spike Jones in 1946 while she was performing at the Hollywood Palladium. After her performance he offered her a gig with him and his band, the City Slickers.

She appeared with Jones and his City Slickers on The Colgate Comedy Hour and The Red Skelton Show. She also starred with Jones and his band on a series of television shows between 1954 and 1961 on NBC and CBS known as The Spike Jones Show. Her last public appearance was in 1968 on an episode of The Dean Martin Show.

The marriage lasted until Jones’s death on May 1, 1965, from emphysema. In 1968, she married Bill Rosen, who owned a restaurant named Gatsby’s in New York City. She moved to New York with him and later moved back to Los Angeles with him when he opened a restaurant called Gatsby’s in L.A. Rosen died in 2002.
Grayco died of cancer in Los Angeles on August 20, 2022, at the age of 97. (Wikipedia — Thanks to Michael Easton for the heads up.)

Jason Remington

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