Linda Keene

aka Florence Suttle

Photo of Linda Keene

Dix­ieland and blues singer Linda Keene worked with a num­ber of or­ches­tras in the late 1930s and early 1940s. After going solo in 1941, she set­tled into a suc­cess­ful radio ca­reer be­fore end­ing up on the club cir­cuit in the late 1940s. Though Keene never caught on with the gen­eral pub­lic, she proved pop­u­lar with the jazz crowd. By the 1950s, how­ever, her ca­reer had faded, and she spent the rest of that decade work­ing lounges and small clubs around the coun­try.

Lit­tle is known about Keene’s early life, and every­thing writ­ten about it in later years was a fab­ri­ca­tion. What’s for cer­tain is that she was born Flo­rence Mc­Crory in 1911 in Mis­sis­sippi, pos­si­bly in Poplarville, where her fam­ily lived in 1920.[1] Her mother had passed away by that year, and she was raised by her fa­ther, along with her three broth­ers and two sis­ters. Keene’s fa­ther worked as a fore­man at a fa­cil­ity that made tur­pen­tine.

By Sep­tem­ber 1931, Keene had mar­ried Spur­geon Sut­tle in Hat­ties­burg, Mis­sis­sippi.[2] She and Spur­geon both sang, and the cou­ple per­formed to­gether at local events. By the mid-​1930s, how­ever, Keene had begun to make a name for her­self on the na­tional stage.[3] Orig­i­nally work­ing as Flo­rence Sut­tle, in late 1935 she sang for pi­anist George Duffy’s or­ches­tra, with whom she was heard on NBC radio.

In April 1937, Keene and Sut­tle sep­a­rated, and by Oc­to­ber of that year Flo­rence Sut­tle had changed her stage name to Linda Keene and was singing with Nye May­hew’s or­ches­tra in New York.[4] In No­vem­ber 1938, she made her first record­ing, “Blue and Dis­il­lu­sioned,” with Bobby Hack­ett on Vo­calion.[5] In Jan­u­ary 1939, she was with an uniden­ti­fied or­ches­tra at a hotel in Hamil­ton, Bermuda, when a pic­ture of her with base­ball star Lefty Gomez cir­cu­lated in the na­tional press.[6]

In early May 1939, Keene joined Jack Tea­gar­den’s band, stay­ing only until July. In Sep­tem­ber, she sang with Willie Farmer’s or­ches­tra. By No­vem­ber, though, she was with Lennie Hay­ton’s band, where she re­mained until early spring 1940 when Hay­ton be­came ill and dis­banded. She then landed a job with Red Norvo’s new out­fit, stay­ing until Norvo broke up in late Jan­u­ary 1941 after los­ing half his men to the draft. Keene quickly found work with Tony Pas­tor’s band, but when Norvo re­or­ga­nized in early March she left Pas­tor and re­turned to her for­mer boss, stay­ing only a month this time be­fore leav­ing for Red Nichols in April. She stayed even less time with Nichols, quit­ting after only two weeks, and in May she was with Mug­gsy Spanier, where she did an­other quick exit, leav­ing in early July to open as a solo act at Cafe So­ci­ety in New York. She di­vorced Sut­tle in June.

Solo Ca­reer

Keene worked jazz clubs as a sin­gle over the sum­mer and fall of 1941, singing with Norvo again that No­vem­ber for one job in New Haven, Con­necti­cut. In late fall, she joined Henry Levine’s Strictly from Dixie radio pro­gram on NBC, be­com­ing a pop­u­lar part of the show. She and Levine recorded an album of Dix­ieland music on RCA Vic­tor in Feb­ru­ary 1942, with Keene singing on six songs.[7] They also made four soundies for Minoco, some of which were re­leased later in the 1940s. Artie Shaw re­port­edly tried to hire Keene in Jan­u­ary 1942, but she turned him down.

Dur­ing sum­mer 1942, Keene did club work. That fall, she be­came a reg­u­lar on NBC’s pop­u­lar Cham­ber Music So­ci­ety from Lower Basin Street pro­gram, and in No­vem­ber and De­cem­ber she toured state­side mil­i­tary bases as part of a USO unit. She sang with Norvo one last time at New York’s Fa­mous Door in Feb­ru­ary 1943 be­fore be­gin­ning a solo tour of the east and Mid­west. She re­port­edly recorded on the Sig­na­ture label in sum­mer 1943 as “Linda Keene and Her Back Room Boys,” though no ev­i­dence ex­ists that the record­ings were ever re­leased.

In Jan­u­ary 1944, Keene headed to the West Coast, where she did club work and made a screen test. While there, she also ap­peared on Bob Crosby’s radio pro­gram in April. She was back in New York that fall, be­com­ing part of NBC’s Dix­ieland House Party. She had re­mar­ried by that time, di­vorc­ing her sec­ond hus­band in No­vem­ber.[8] In 1944, she recorded on the Black and White label, backed by Joe Marsala’s band. She made fur­ther sides for Black and White in 1945 and took part in an­other USO tour that sum­mer. A nat­ural brunette, she had dyed her hair blonde at some point, and in Sep­tem­ber 1946 she dyed it black.

In Jan­u­ary 1947, Keene mar­ried radio an­nouncer Burleigh Smith in Shreve­port, Louisiana. By mid-​year, she had sep­a­rated from Smith and gone to the West Coast, where real es­tate ty­coon and jazz pa­tron Still­man Pond arranged for her to make a film short. She re­mained in the west for the next four years, with brief New York club ap­pear­ances in 1948, be­fore head­ing to Chicago in 1951 and then back east. Her star had faded by this point, how­ever, and she drifted onto the lounge cir­cuit. She con­tin­ued singing until at least 1958. She and Smith di­vorced in 1948.

Linda Keene passed away from can­cer in 1981 at the age of 69.[9]

Notes

  1. Pub­lic records show that Keene was born in Mis­sis­sippi, with no town name given. Keene her­self var­ied in what she stated was her birth­place, claim­ing Florida dur­ing the early 1940s, but from 1942 on­wards she was said to have been born in New Or­leans, likely be­cause by that time her name had be­come as­so­ci­ated with Dix­ieland music. ↩︎

  2. A 1941 Down Beat ar­ti­cle stated that she and Sut­tle had mar­ried in 1932, but in Sep­tem­ber 1931 a Hat­ties­burg news­pa­per re­ported on a “Mr. and Mrs. Spur­geon Sut­tle, who sang” at the local Lions club. Sut­tle was from Lucedale, Mis­sis­sippi, and grad­u­ated from For­est County Agri­cul­tural High School in Brook­lyn, Mis­sis­sippi, in May 1930, where he played foot­ball, bas­ket­ball, base­ball, and track, win­ning let­ters in each. ↩︎

  3. It’s un­known if Spur­geon Sut­tle ever sang any­where but lo­cally. ↩︎

  4. Linda Keene was the name of the Gin­ger Rogers char­ac­ter in the Fred Astaire-​Ginger Rogers film Shall We Dance, re­leased in mid-​1937. It’s un­known if Keene took her stage name from the film or if it was sim­ply co­in­ci­dence that she chose the same moniker. ↩︎

  5. Many crit­ics com­plained about the length of the vocal seg­ment on “Blue and Dis­il­lu­sioned.” ↩︎

  6. A 1951 Down Beat rem­i­nis­cence about Glenn Miller stated that Keene had re­placed Gail Reese as the band’s vo­cal­ist in sum­mer 1938. No con­tem­po­rary sources state this, and no re­ports about Keene in the late 1930s or early 1940s ever lists Miller as one of the bands with which she had sang. Given that the ar­ti­cle also, among other er­rors, misiden­ti­fies the first song that Miller’s 1938 band recorded, there’s se­ri­ous doubt that the state­ment about Keene is true. If Keene had sung with Miller, that as­so­ci­a­tion would have been trum­peted loudly in her every men­tion. ↩︎

  7. Keene’s six songs were billed as “Linda Keene with Henry Levine and his Strictly from Dixie Jazz Band.” Levine recorded six in­stru­men­tal num­bers to round out the album. ↩︎

  8. It’s un­known who Keene’s sec­ond hus­band was. Wal­ter Winchell re­ported that she had mar­ried a “sol­dier” in Reno and di­vorced him in New York. ↩︎

  9. Keene was older than most singers of the big band era, and like many band vo­cal­ists she lied about her age. Keene’s obit­u­ary gave her age at death as 64. She was ac­tu­ally 69. A March 1944 ar­ti­cle said Keene was 24, which would be eight years younger than her true age at that time. ↩︎

Sources

  1. “27 Graduates Will Receive AHS Diplomas.” Hattiesburg American [Hattiesburg, Mississippi] 10 May 1930: 3.
  2. “Pioneer Educator Talks to Students.” Hattiesburg American [Hattiesburg, Mississippi] 10 May 1930: 3.
  3. “Forrest AHS Loses Seven Sports Stars.” Hattiesburg American [Hattiesburg, Mississippi] 13 May 1930: 6.
  4. “Lions to Map Plans for C.C.” Hattiesburg American [Hattiesburg, Mississippi] 25 Sep. 1931: 10.
  5. “Duffy Orchestra At Crystal Beach Sunday.” The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram [Elyria, Ohio] 28 Sep. 1935: 4.
  6. Advertisement. “George Duffy and his orchestra.” The Syracuse Herald [Syracuse, New York] 11 Dec. 1935: 10.
  7. “Hub Night Life.” Billboard 2 Oct. 1937: 98.
  8. “Lefty Gomez Turns Troubador.” The Salem, Ohio, News 24 Jan. 1939: 5.
  9. Toll, Ted. “Chi. Groveling in Best Jazz Since Early 20's.” Down Beat Jun. 1939: 27.
  10. “The Reviewing Stand: Willie Farmer.” Billboard 9 Sep. 1939: 13.
  11. “Vaudeville Reviews: Loew's State, New York.” Billboard 2 Dec. 1939: 34.
  12. Sheer, Harry. “Recorded Music.” The Capital Times [Madison, Wisconsin] 21 Apr. 1940: 18.
  13. Feather, Leonard. “Red Nichols Purges Band.” Down Beat 1 Jul. 1940: 2.
  14. “On the Stand: Red Norvo.” Billboard 28 Sep. 1940: 12.
  15. “Norvo On the Cover.” Down Beat 15 Oct. 1940: 4.
  16. “Equally Lovely.” Down Beat 15 Oct. 1940: 12.
  17. “Christmas Dance Heads Say Bids Are Almost Gone.” The Oberlin Review 10 Dec. 1940: 4.
  18. “Tony Pastor Gets New Girl Singer.” Down Beat 15 Feb. 1941: 3.
  19. “Half of Norvo's Band Drafted; He Gives Up.” Down Beat 1 Mar. 1941: 1.
  20. “Norvo Reorganizes Again; Keene Back as Girl Singer.” Down Beat 15 Mar. 1941: 1.
  21. “Linda Keene Now With Nichols.” Down Beat 15 Apr. 1941: 21.
  22. “Penny for Nichols.” Down Beat 1 May 1941: 7.
  23. “Dave Bowman With Spanier.” Down Beat 1 Jun. 1941: 4.
  24. “Linda Keene Divorced.” Down Beat 1 Jul. 1941: 2.
  25. “Lost Harmony.” Down Beat 1 Jul. 1941: 10.
  26. “Linda Keene on Her Own, Solo.” Down Beat 15 Jul. 1941: 4.
  27. “Leggy Lovely.” Down Beat 1 Oct. 1941: 23.
  28. “Linda Keene Set on NBC.” Down Beat 1 Dec. 1941: 2.
  29. “5 Saxes, Six Brass in New Norvo Combo.” Down Beat 1 Dec. 1941: 5.
  30. “Levine, Keene Set for Album.” Down Beat 1 Feb. 1942: 15.
  31. Jovien, Harold. “Musicians On the Air.” Down Beat 15 Feb. 1942: 16.
  32. “Movie Machine Reviews.” Billboard 30 May 1942: 92.
  33. “Lovely Linda Is Modest.” Down Beat 1 Jun. 1942: 15.
  34. “Duo of Fem Chirps Go Into Stable.” Down Beat 1 Jul. 1942: 15.
  35. “USO Camp Show Casts Set.” Billboard 28 Nov. 1942: 4.
  36. “O'Connell Moves On Basin Street.” Down Beat 1 Feb. 1943: 20.
  37. “Red and Linda Play a Quickie.” Down Beat 15 Feb. 1943: 20.
  38. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 15 Jul. 1943: 11.
  39. “Hold Linda Keene.” Down Beat 1 Aug. 1943: 12.
  40. “Flock of Discs By Signature.” Down Beat 1 Aug. 1943: 23.
  41. “G. James at Door, Linda Keene Back.” Down Beat 15 Apr. 1943: 2.
  42. “In Short.” Billboard 20 Nov. 1943: 16.
  43. “Five-Way Pick-Up.” Billboard 1 Jan. 1944: 11.
  44. “In Short.” Billboard 26 Feb. 1944: 23.
  45. “On The Air.” The Circleville Herald [Circleville, Ohio] 25 Mar. 1944: 7.
  46. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 15 Apr. 1944: 5.
  47. “Movie Machine Reviews.” Billboard 29 Jul. 1944: 90.
  48. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 1 Oct. 1944: 5.
  49. “Single Slants: Linda Keene.” Down Beat 15 Oct. 1944: 4.
  50. Winchell, Walter. “Winchell.” The Port Arthur News [Port Arthur, Texas] 1 Nov. 1944: 4.
  51. “New Disc Firms In Recording Splurge.” Down Beat 1 Feb. 1945: 9.
  52. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 15 May 1945: 5.
  53. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 1 Aug. 1945: 1.
  54. “Follow-Up Review.” Billboard 29 Dec. 1945: 37.
  55. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 1 Jan. 1946: 1.
  56. “Earle Warren To Kellys April 4.” Down Beat 25 Mar. 1946: 3.
  57. “Keene At Florida Club.” Down Beat 26 Aug. 1946: 3.
  58. “Movie Machine Reviews.” Billboard 7 Sep. 1946: 134.
  59. “Whodat: Florence McCrory.” Down Beat 23 Sep. 1946: 16.
  60. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 21 Oct. 1946: 5.
  61. “Tied Notes.” Down Beat 12 Feb. 1947: 10.
  62. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 30 Jul. 1947: 9.
  63. “Linda Helps Celebrate Library.” Down Beat 27 Aug. 1947: 8.
  64. “Pond's Party For Linda Brings Everyone Out.” Down Beat 24 Sep. 1947: 1.
  65. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 24 Mar. 1948: 13.
  66. “Lost Harmony.” Down Beat 7 Apr. 1948: 10.
  67. “Harris, Parker Get Beat Plaques.” Down Beat 21 Apr. 1948: 18.
  68. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 12 Aug. 1949: 5.
  69. Gleason, Ralph J. “Swingin' the Golden Gate.” Down Beat 10 Feb. 1950: 8.
  70. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 2 Jun. 1950: 5.
  71. “Strictly Ad Lib.” Down Beat 19 Oct. 1951: 5.
  72. “Strictly Ad Lib: New York.” Down Beat 15 Jul. 1953: 3.
  73. Advertisement. “Hollywood Restaurant.” The Berkshire Evening Eagle [Pittsfield, Massachusetts] 23 Sep. 1953: 14.
  74. Advertisement. “New Windsor Hotel.” Oneonta Star [Oneonta, New York] 9 Jan. 1954: 7.
  75. “Strictly Ad Lib: New York.” Down Beat 8 Sep. 1954: 3.
  76. Advertisement. “Andre's Tic-Toc Club.” Syracuse Herald-Journal [Syracuse, New York] 24 Jan. 1955: 17.
  77. Advertisement. “Andre's Tic-Toc Club.” Syracuse Post-Standard [Syracuse, New York] 28 Apr. 1958: 14.
  78. “Deaths.” Billboard 7 Nov. 1981: 80.
  79. “United States Census, 1920,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNTH-YXN : Sun Mar 10 03:48:50 UTC 2024), Entry for J H McCrory and Lawson McCrory, 1920.
  80. “California Death Index, 1940-1997,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGGL-WFY : 26 November 2014), Florence Mccrory, 23 Oct 1981; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.