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Born Lemeul Eugene Lucas to parents Nova Lucas (father, died 1943), and Serena Belle Harrell (mother, died 1956), Gene Austin took the name of his stepfather (Jim Austin, a blacksmith). Gene Austin enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 17 in the hopes of being sent to Europe to fight in World War I . Instead, because of his familiarity with horses from helping his stepfather in his blacksmithing business, he was assigned to the Cavalry and sent to Mexico with the Pancho Villa Expedition , for which he was awarded the Mexican Service Medal . On returning to the United States after he was discharged in 1919, Austin attended a Vaudeville act in Houston, Texas where the audience was allowed to come to the stage and sing. On a dare from his friends, Austin took the stage and sang for the first time since singing as a Southern Baptist choir boy. The audience response was overwhelming, and the vaudeville company immediately offered him a billed spot on their ticket. Arriving with the advent of Electrical Recording Technologies (earlier, acoustical tecnologies had been used) Austin soon gave birth to the "crooner" form (a clear light tenor) of singing of the 20's and 30's, taking over from the more sentimental style of tenor vocals popularized by such singers as Henry Burr and Billy Murray . Such later crooners as Bing Crosby , Frank Sinatra and Russ Columbo all credited Austin with creating the musical genre that began their careers. Gene Austin became enormously popular in the late 1920s. His recording of " My Blue Heaven " sold over 12 million records and until Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" was the largest selling record of all time. Offered to work in Hollywood at the height of his career as the "Voice of the Southland", Austin appeared in three films, "''Belle of the Nineties''" (1934), "''Klondike Annie''" (1936) and "''My Little Chickadee''" (1940), at the request of his personal friend, Mae West . Austin's songwriting credits include '' When My Sugar Walks Down The Street '', '' The Lonesome Road '' and '' Ridin' Around In The Rain ''. Gene Austin married his first wife, Kathryn Arnold, a dancer, in 1924 and divorced her in 1929. They had a child, Ann, born in 1928. Austin married his second wife, Agnes Antelline, in 1933, and their dauther Charlotte was born that same year. He and Agnes divorced in 1940. Austin then married actress Doris Sherrell in 1940, and divorced her in 1946. He married wife number four, LouCeil Hudson, a singer, in 1949, and the marriage lasted until 1966. Austin then married a fifth and final time to Gigi Theodora, in 1967. Austin had retired to Palm Springs, California in the late 1950's and had been active in civil boards there until 1970. He died in Palm Springs in 1971 of Lung Cancer and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California . In 1978, Gene Austin was posthumously awarded a Grammy Hall Of Fame Award for his 1928 recording of '' Bye, Bye, Blackbird '', which has long been considered recorded music's definitive rendition of that song. In 2005, Gene Austin was nominated and admitted to the Grammy Hall Of Fame . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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