Jessica Dragonette (February 14, 1900[1]-March 18, 1980) was a singer who became popular on American radio and was active in the World War II effort.
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Dragonette was born around 1900 in India. There is some uncertainty as to the exact date of birth; her birth records were reportedly destroyed in a fire. The Social Security Death Index cites 1900 as her year of birth. An orphan, she was raised in a convent, Georgian Court College, in Lakewood, New Jersey, where she graduated in 1923, according to the list of the college's alumni; if she was 18 then this would place her birth date as actually in 1905.
She began singing on radio in 1926, and during her 22-year radio career, she helped to popularize operettas and semi-classical music. An admiring press dubbed her the "Princess of Song", a nickname she later would use to publicize concert events. She was the star of the "Philco Hour" on NBC from 1927 to 1930. (Dunning, 543) She then became the star of the Cities Service Concerts program, which she joined in 1930. By 1935, a listeners' poll voted her radio's most popular female vocalist. (Fraser, B15) Dragonette sang in a segment of the film The Big Broadcast of 1936, on the condition that she have authority over the final cut on her performance. In the end she chose to have her part removed. In 1939, she provided the singing voice of "Princess Glory" in the full color animated motion picture Gulliver's Travels.
In 1940 she was painted by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947), and the portrait now hangs at Georgian Court College, where Jessica went to school. Müller-Ury became a close friend of the singer, and painted her several times, his last being in 1946 in which she wears a gold fez. Muller-Ury also painted a portrait of Nadea Dragonette Loftus in 1942.
During World War II she performed for charities benefiting the U.S. armed services, earning her an honorary commission as a Colonel. She performed frequently for the troops and sold a record number of war bonds. She once remarked that The Star Spangled Banner never had more meaning for her than it did during the war.
On June 28, 1947, she married Nicholas Meredith Turner (born October 28, 1915) at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Both Jessica and Nicholas were devout Roman Catholics. The ceremony was performed by their friend, Cardinal Francis Spellman. Their union was childless.
In the mid-1950s, David Gottlieb, the president of the leading pinball game manufacturer, hired Jessica Dragonette to appear at coin machine functions promoting a pinball game called Dragonette. However, the game had nothing to do with Ms. Dragonette. It was spoof of a leading TV show of the period, Dragnet.
She died on March 18, 1980 and was survived by her husband and a sister, Rosalinda "Nadea" Loftus (Mrs. Joseph Loftus) (1892–1982). Nicholas Turner died in New York City on March 8, 2010. Jessica Dragonette is interred a crypt in Our Lady Queen of Peace Mausoleum at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, NY.
2. Dunning, John. Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
3. C. Gerald Fraser. "Jessica Dragonette, Singer, Dies; Popular Early Radio Performer." New York Times, 20 March 1980, p. B15.