Wife of Bing Crosby books to the Spa City

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Since early June the two women have been crisscrossing New York state in a tan Toyota Camry making stops in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. The road trip brings them to the Spa City on Friday evening.

And while images of immortal duos like Thelma and Louise come to mind, if you were to think more along the lines of the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope road movies, you wouldn't be too far off. At least you would be in the same family.

Kathryn Crosby - wife of 20 years of the late Bing Crosby - is on a book tour with her latest release, "My Last Years With Bing," She makes a stop Friday night at Barnes & Noble in Saratoga.

Just what does one talk with Mrs. Crosby about when they are up close and in close traveling quarters?

"Oh, we shoot the breeze," says Judy Schmid, Koenig Public Relations representative who is traveling with Crosby.

Crosby and Schmid are in Rochester, in between appearances at an area hospital and on their way to a radio station for an on-air interview.

"We talk about our children, about her kids and about my kid," Schmid says via cell phone. "We make girl talk. We do crossword puzzles."

Kathryn Grant Crosby, accomplished performer, author, artist, nurse, teacher and golf tournament hostess, is on the road with her recently published companion volume to the 1983 book, "My Life with Bing."

"The book tour has been very exciting," Crosby says. It has taken her from recent appearances on the "Today" show with Katie Couric to libraries, hospitals and radio shows across the Northeast.

The book, Crosby says, "is a continuation, of the years 1966 to 1977. I started to write it all as one big book but stopped when it got to weighing five pounds," Crosby says.

Crosby was married to the world-famous entertainer for 20 years until his death in 1977.

The book is a lively narrative, issued on the 100th anniversary of the birth of her late husband, and describes her life as Bing's wife and mother to his three children. It is full of personal anecdotes and color photos, including those taken on family vacations.

Kathryn was born in West Columbia, Texas, and began performing at the age of 3. She has performed on stages around the world. Her film career includes appearances in "Rear Window" and "Anatomy of a Murder," although she is probably best known for her film role as the "shrinking princess" in the cult classic, "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad."

"I love each thing that I do, as I do it," Crosby says in a laid back, yet sultry 1950s movie star kind of voice. It is a voice laced with a hint of a British accent and defies any resemblance in tone to her Texas upbringing.

"When I first got to Paramount, I did USO Tours that went all over the world. To France and Korea and in many strange places that didn't even have full names, like K2 or Jade Strip," Crosby says. "They were all so exciting."

She remembers one particular trip that she had taken with her husband fondly. "The time Bing took me to Africa. I loved to walk in this paradise, in a place that seemed as though no one had ever been to before."

As a young actress on the Paramount Studios lot in the 1950s, she did double-duty as a reporter for her hometown newspaper, writing a column called "Texas Gal in Hollywood".
It was as a reporter that she had the opportunity to interview Bing Crosby - and their relationship began. After a series of postponements, the two were wed in 1957 and the marriage produced three children yet slowed her down little. As a young mother already armed with a BFA from the University of Texas, she began part-time study to become a nurse and earned her RN from Queen of Angels School of Nursing in Los Angeles.

Crosby holds a special affinity for nurses and the nursing profession after being witness to some of horrific injuries on the USO tours and how the nurses dealt with healing tragedy.

"I thought the nurses were brilliant," she says. "That is why I became a nurse."

Crosby later added teaching certificates for primary and secondary school from the state of California. She is also fluent in French, Spanish, German and Russian. But even with all her personal accomplishments, she says she doesn't consider herself a role model.

"I loved being married to Bing," she says simply. "That was the most important part of my life." Some of her fondest memories, Crosby says, are the TV Christmas specials that involved bringing the entire family into America's living rooms every holiday.

Harry Lillis Crosby was born, supposedly in May 1903. It is a date that is often reported erroneously. He got his nickname from the comic "The Bingville Bugle." His first marriage, to Dixie Lee ended after her death to cancer in 1952.

In "My Last Years with Bing," Kathryn Crosby depicts a different era. It was one where the men are the rescuers, and the women "whirled off along the trail" with their "full-length minks flying out behind them like a comet's tail." During one wintry New Year's Day in a station wagon filled with a number of children and adults, Crosby writes, the vehicle got "bogged down in deep drifts." Her husband and brother-in-law saved the day.

"Bing and Leonard climbed out, dug in manfully with their shoulders just above the rear bumper and made loud puffing noises," Crosby writes. "The children piled out to cheer them on. (Passenger) Mary Morrow remarked on how secure she felt with such strong men about, and I, the immediate cause of the catastrophe, remained safely behind the wheel, helpfully warbling random stanzas from Peter Pan."

During his career, Bing Crosby made more studio recordings than any other singer in history. Between 1927 and 1968, he released 368 records under his own name and another 28 as a vocalist with a variety of bandleaders. He scored 38 No. 1 hits - 14 more than the Beatles and more than twice as many as Elvis.

His most popular record is, of course, his rendition of "White Christmas." It is estimated he appeared on 4,000 radio broadcasts during his life.

He was also an avid golfer - creating the first and longest running celebrity pro-am golf championship - as well as having hobbies in fishing, hunting and horse racing.

He helped develop the Del Mar racetrack in California, eventually selling his interest in the track in 1947 when he purchased the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.

"Bing liked race horses, and he knew Charles Howard, who owned Seabiscuit," Crosby says. "Bing's horse Ligaroti and Seabiscuit went one-on-one at Del Mar," Crosby says of the $25,000 winner-take-all race in August 1938, that pitted American champion Seabiscuit and South American star Ligaroti. "Seabiscuit won by a nose," Crosby says, but remembers of her husband's fondness for the Spa City.

"Bing loved Saratoga. He loved the people and the jockeys and the trainers," she says. The visit on Friday is her first to the area.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
The Saratogian, June 12, 2003.