Hailing from Ilford, Essex, Kathy Kirby (born Catherine Ethel O’Rourke in 1938) sang her way into the charts with discs like Dance On and Secret Love, then went on to lucrative cabaret and stage appearances and her own TV series (the BBC-produced Kathy KirbyShow), which netted her £18,000.
Often compared to Marilyn Monroe, Kathy was only sixteen when she first sang in an Ilford dance hall with the Ambrose Band and learned her trade the hard way, singing with dance bands.
Her manager, veteran musician and famous bandleader Bert Ambrose, shrewdly guided her career to the point that, at 24, Kathy was in the £1,000-a-week class, although a turbulent personal life eclipsed her singing career.
Ambrose also turned out to be Kathy’s “Secret Love”. Though he was more than four decades older than her – and they kept it hidden from the press – they were lovers until he died in 1971.
Adrift and reclusive in the 70s and 80s, apart from occasional unwanted intrusions from the tabloids, Kathy was reunited in the internet era with the family she had more or less left for Ambrose.
Kathy gave one last concert in Blackpool in 1983, and after being diagnosed with schizophrenia, she retired from showbiz.
She passed away in 2011, just a few days after moving to Brinsworth House, the residential care home for show business people. She was 72.
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Often compared to Marilyn Monroe, Kathy was only sixteen when she first sang in an Ilford dance hall with the Ambrose Band and learned her trade the hard way, singing with dance bands.
Ambrose also turned out to be Kathy’s “Secret Love”. Though he was more than four decades older than her – and they kept it hidden from the press – they were lovers until he died in 1971.
