Frances "Frankie" Gershwin Godowsky (born Frances Gershwin; December 6, 1906 – January 18, 1999) was an American singer, musician, Broadway performer and artist.

Background

She was born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, the younger sister of George, Ira and Arthur Gershwin. She was the first of the Gershwin family to perform as a child, and she brought home a good sum of money for the time.

Personal life

She married Leopold Godowsky Jr., co-inventor (with

Leopold Mannes Leopold Damrosch Mannes (December 26, 1899 – August 11, 1964) was an American musician, who, together with Leopold Godowsky Jr., created the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome. Life and career Mannes was born in New York Cit ...

), of Kodachrome color photography. Godowsky was also first violinist with the Los Angeles and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras and performed with his father, the pianist

Leopold Godowsky Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. (13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher, born in what is now Lithuania to Jewish parents, who became an United States of America, American citizen in 1891. He ...

. Actress Dagmar Godowsky became her sister-in-law. Frances and Leopold had four children: Alexis Gershwin, Leopold Godowsky III, and twins Georgia Keidan and Nadia Natali. All four children were involved in performing and the fine arts. Frances traveled to Europe with her brother George and performed at parties with him. She also performed briefly on Broadway. After she married, she continued her artistic activities, at one point winning a French painting award. In her later years, she returned to singing again and recorded the album ''For George And Ira'' in 1973. She died in 1999, aged 92, the last and longest-living of the Gershwin siblings. Her final resting place is the Gershwin Mausoleum, along with her husband, brothers, and parents. Gershwin best 800

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gershwin, Frances 1906 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American painters 20th-century American Jews Jewish American singers People from the East Village, Manhattan

Frances Frances is an English given name or last name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'the French.' The male version of the name in English is Francis (given name), Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "F ...

Frances Gershwin 20th-century American singers Painters from New York City Singers from New York City Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American women artists