Norma Zimmer

Norma Zimmer
Zimmer in 1961.
Background information
Birth name	Norma Larsen
Born	(1923-07-13)July 13, 1923 Shoshone County, Idaho, U.S.
Died	May 10, 2011(2011-05-10) (aged 87) Brea, California, U.S.
Occupations	Vocalist
Associated acts	Lawrence Welk Norman Luboff Choir Ken Darby Singers

Norma Zimmer (July 13, 1923 – May 10, 2011) was a vocalist, best remembered for her 22-year tenure as Lawrence Welk's "Champagne Lady" on The Lawrence Welk Show.

Biography

Born as Norma Larsen on a dairy farm in Shoshone County, Idaho and grew up in Seattle, Washington, after her father moved the family west. She was half Norwegian and half Finnish.^[1] Zimmer was singing in a church choir when a guest artist suggested she travel to Los Angeles, California and audition for a musical group. When she turned 18, she did just that, singing with a succession of top vocal groups, including the Norman Luboff Choir and the Ken Darby Singers, among others. She appeared on most of the popular television variety shows during the 1950s. She landed a small singing part in the Bing Crosby movie Mr. Music (1950), and provided the singing voice for the White Rose in the Disney film Alice in Wonderland (1951). She worked as a studio singer and performed on Welk's 1956 Thanksgiving album. ^{[citation needed]}

Zimmer sang with a quartet called The Girlfriends along with Betty Allan and others. They sang backup for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and others. Their group sang backup for the famous Bing Crosby version of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". In 1959, the previous Champagne Lady Alice Lon left the show due to monetary and scheduling disagreements. Because of protests, Welk tried (and failed) to get Lon back. After a year of the show's trying out several different singers, Zimmer officially joined the Welk show as his Champagne Lady on New Year's Eve, 1960.^[2] Zimmer stayed on the show and traveled with Welk and the band on personal appearances for three years.

As her two sons were growing up, she decided to give it up to raise her children. Welk told her it was all right for her to quit the road tours, but he asked her to stay on the television show until he could find another singer. Each week, a new girl came on as a possible replacement, but Welk kept asking Zimmer to come back the following week. That went on for 20 years. As the show's Champagne Lady, Zimmer sang one solo and often a duet (usually with Jimmy Roberts); she frequently danced with Welk at the end of the show.^[3]

She also appeared in a number of the Billy Graham evangelical crusades and wrote a book about her life, Norma (1976), published by Tyndale House. ^{[citation needed]}

Personal life/death

Zimmer stopped performing publicly since she was suffering from a neurological disorder. She died peacefully on May 10, 2011, at her Brea, California home, aged 87, and was survived by her two sons, Ron and Mark, as well as three grandchildren, from her 1944 marriage to Randy Zimmer. ^{[citation needed]}

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norma Zimmer.