Kathryn Crosby

Kathryn Crosby (born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff, November 25, 1933) is an American retired actress and singer who performed in films under the stage names Kathryn Grant and Kathryn Grandstaff.[1]

For the woman crowned Miss Alabama 2003, see Catherine Crosby.
Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn with her husband Bing Crosby on his 1976 Christmas special.
Born
Olive Kathryn Grandstaff

(1933-11-25) November 25, 1933
West Columbia, Texas, U.S.
Other namesKathryn Grandstaff
Kathryn Grant
EducationUniversity of Texas at Austin (BFA)
Years active1953–2010
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1957; died 1977)​

Maurice William Sullivan
​
​
(m. 2000; died 2010)​
Children

Life and career

Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff in West Columbia, Texas, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1955. Two years later she became Bing Crosby's second wife, being more than thirty years his junior. The couple had three children, Harry, Mary Frances, and Nathaniel.[2] She appeared as a guest star on her husband's 1964–1965 ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show.

Crosby largely retired from acting after her marriage, but did have featured roles as Princess Parisa in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), and in the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959). She also played the part of "Mama Bear" alongside her husband and children in Goldilocks and co-starred with Jack Lemmon in the comedy Operation Mad Ball (1957), with Tony Curtis in the drama Mister Cory (1957) and as a trapeze artist in The Big Circus (1959). In the mid-1970s, she hosted The Kathryn Crosby Show, a 30-minute local talk-show on KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Husband Bing appeared as a guest occasionally. Since Bing Crosby's death in 1977, she has taken on a few smaller roles and the lead in the short-lived 1996 Broadway musical State Fair.

In the 1960s, Crosby studied for and received her nursing degree at the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles.[3][4]

For 16 years ending in 2001, Crosby hosted the Crosby National Golf Tournament at Bermuda Run Country Club in Bermuda Run, North Carolina. A nearby bridge carrying U.S. Route 158 over the Yadkin River is named for Kathryn Crosby.[5]

On November 4, 2010, Crosby was seriously injured in an automobile accident in the Sierra Nevada that killed her 85-year-old second husband, Maurice William Sullivan, whom she had married in 2000.[6]

Filmography
Crosby with Vince Edwards as a guest star on Ben Casey, 1965.

References
  1. "Kathryn Grant". Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  2. "Bing Crosby biography". Archived from the original on October 28, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2010.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. "1963 Press Photo Kathryn Crosby wife Bing Crosby nurse cap Queen Angels School". Historic Images. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  4. West, Richard; Thackrey, Jr., Ted (October 15, 1977). "From the Archives: Bing Crosby Dies at 73 on Golf Course". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  5. Jim Sparks, "Crews to Start Work on Bridge," Winston-Salem Journal, November 21, 2007.
  6. Martin Griffith (December 2, 2010). "Bing Crosby's widow recovering from accident". Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 21, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
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