Chris Connor was born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Missouri, to Clyde Loutsenhizer and Mabel Shirley. She became proficient on the clarinet, having studied for eight years during middle school and high school. She sang with the college band at the University of Missouri, playing at functions in Columbia, Missouri.[2]
In 1949, Connor recorded two songs with Claude Thornhill's band: "There's a Small Hotel" and "I Don't Know Why".[3] With Jerry Wald's big band she recorded "You're the Cream in My Coffee", "Cherokee", "Pennies from Heaven", "Raisins and Almonds", and "Terremoto".[3] Connor and Thornhill reunited in 1952 for a radio broadcast from the Statler Hotel in New York City for which she sang "Wish You Were Here", "Come Rain or Come Shine", "Sorta Kinda", and "Who Are We to Say".[3]
She made her final recordings for HighNote: Haunted Heart in 2001 and Everything I Love in 2003.[4]
Billboard reported in 1955 that Connor's first two solo albums for Bethlehem, Sings Lullabys of Birdland and Sings Lullabys for Lovers, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on the jazz chart for the week ending April 23, 1955.[5] In 1957, she ranked No. 10 in the Favorite Female Vocalist disk jockey popularity poll behind Lena Horne and June Christy.[6]
A resident of Toms River, New Jersey, Connor died there from cancer on August 29, 2009, at the age of 81. Her longtime partner was her manager, Lori Muscarelle.[1][7][8]
^Holden, Stephen. "Chris Connor, Jazz Singer Whose Voice Embodied a Wistful Cool, Dies at 81", The New York Times, September 1, 2009. Accessed September 17, 2019. "Chris Connor, the great jazz singer whose lush, foggy voice and compressed emotional intensity distilled a 1950s jazz reverie of faraway longing in a sad cafe, died on Saturday in Toms River, N.J. She was 81 and lived in Toms River. [...] Ms. Connor is survived by her longtime partner and manager, Lori Muscarelle."
