Patty Andrews Dies, Singer Was Last Surviving Member of the Andrews Sisters

World War II-era darlings were best known for bubbly classics like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B"; Patty was 94

By Natalie Finn Jan 31, 2013 12:20 AMTags
The Andrews Sisters, Maxene Andrews, Patty Andrews, LaVerne AndrewsGAB Archive/Redferns/Getty Images

It's the end of an era.

Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of World War II-era vocal group the Andrews Sisters (and the center sister in the photo above), died today of natural causes at her Northridge, Calif. home, her manager tells the Los Angeles Times. She was 94.

The Minnesota-born trio was known for bubbly hits like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" (introduced by the ladies in the 1941 Abbott & Costello comedy Buck Privates) and covers of "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," which became their first No. 1 record in 1938.

Most notably, the Andrews Sisters were fixtures on the USO tour scene, and it was Patty and her sisters, Maxene and LaVerne, who delivered the news to 5,000 especially-lucky soldiers during a concert in Italy in 1945 that the war was over.

"This is really true," an emotional Patty told the G.I.s, as remembered by Maxene in a later interview with the L.A. Times.

"We were such a part of everybody's life in the Second World War. We represented something overseas and at home—a sort of security," Patty, who was the group's lead vocalist, said in a later interview. Per their official website, the Andrews Sisters recorded more than 700 songs and sold upwards of 90 million records.

LaVerne died of cancer in 1967 at the age of 55.

Patty enjoyed some later fame with TV appearances on The Gong Show and Here's Lucy in the 1970s and she toured solo in the 1980s, but it was her reported feud with Maxene that lasted until the younger sister's death in 1995, at 79.

"Ever since I was born, Maxene has been a problem, and that problem hasn't stopped," Patty once told the Times. "I'm not going to do anything or say anything to destroy that image that the people love. I hear that from the people that they love the Andrews Sisters and it's a joy to them. Who am I to take that away?"

Patty's second husband, Wally Weschler, died in 2010 after more than 59 years of marriage. Andrews is survived by foster daughter Pam DuBois.