If He Walked into My Life<\/a>” in 1967. That was the same year the couple first performed together on the Broadway stage in “Golden Rainbow,” a musical that started its run at the Shubert Theatre in late 1967, officially opening in February of 1968. The musical, known best for its signature song “I Gotta Be Me,” which Lawrence and Sammy Davis, Jr. both recorded, later moved in November to the George Abbott Theatre, concluding its run in early January, 1969.<\/p>\nShe was born Edith Garmezano in the Bronx to Sephardic Jewish immigrants – her mother was from Turkey and her father, a tailor, was from Sicily. Growing up she learned English, Italian Yiddish, Spanish and Ladino, language skills that would later prove important to her singing career, but also as an interpreter at the United Nations.<\/p>\n
She was a popular student and cheerleader, graduating from William Taft High School in 1946. It was during the stint at the U.N. that she began her long recording career in 1950 – at first on weekends – starting as a singer with the Ken Greenglass band. Greenglass encouraged the budding star and eventually became her manager.\u00a0 She recorded several records and later toured with the Tommy Tucker, Tex Beneke and Ray Eberle big bands making many appearances on radio and then TV.<\/p>\n
It was during this period that she began to use the stagename of Eydie Gorm\u00e9, at first shortening Edith to Edie, but later adding the “y” when others kept referring to her as “Eddie.” Reportedly, her mother protested unsuccessfully over the change of her surname, asking how would the neighbors know of her success?<\/p>\n
Gorm\u00e9’s career took off with her husband when the two were booked to host a summer replacement show for the\u00a0 Tonight Show. Lawrence served a two-year stint in the U.S. Army shortly thereafter and she began her solo career at that point, eventually signing a recording contract with Columbia Records.<\/p>\n
She began recording duets with her husband the year after her success with “Blame It on the Bossa Nova<\/a>,” releasing two songs in 1963 – “I Want to Stay Here” and “I Can’t Stop Talking about You” – which hit 28 and 35 on the charts, respectively. Their last song together, “Hallelujah<\/a>,” was recorded under the pseudonym of “Parker and Penny” and released in 1979.<\/p>\nGorm\u00e9’s career took off in a different direction with the release of “Amor<\/a>,” a collection of Spanish language standards with backing by famed Mexican guitarist and singing group Trio Los Panchos in 1964. The resulting worldwide sales and airplay in Latin America prompted the release of additional albums and singles throughout the remainder of the 1960s and early 1970s. One of the early songs associated closely with her Spanish singing career was “Sabor a Mi<\/a>,” a a simple and plaintive ballad. One of her last Spanish recordings was “Eres Tu<\/a>,” a song known in the English-speaking world as “Touch the Wind.”<\/p>\nLawrence and Gorm\u00e9 had two sons from their marriage. Michael, an assistant editor for a TV show, died suddenly of an undiagnosed case of ventricular fibrillation in 1986 at the age of 23. Their younger son David, a music composer and arranger, was reportedly at his mother’s bedside with his father at the time of her death last night at Sunrise Hospital.<\/p>\n
Aside from her husband and son, Gorm\u00e9 is also survived by a granddaughter. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/EydieGorme4.jpg\" "\\"EydieGorme4\\"")