Jean Adair Swain (August 12, 1923 – July 17, 2000) was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and grew up in Port Washington,

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, where she graduated from high school at age 16. Her musical talents included playing the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

s and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

groups, arranging, composing, and teaching. She was also an accomplished pianist.'Jean Adair Swain-obituary,' New York Times, July 23, 2000 She received her degree in music at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

(1945) where she was a founding member and arranger for the "Smithereens,"a singing group now a campus tradition. In 1946 she and her sister, Nancy Swain Overton, founded a vocal quartet The Heathertones with Bix Brent and Pauli Skindlov (later replaced by Marianne McCormick). After The Heathertones broke up, Jean pursued a career in documentary film production with

Robert Drew Robert Lincoln Drew (February 15, 1924 – July 30, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker known as one of the pioneers—and sometimes called father—of cinéma vérité, or direct cinema, in the United States. Two of his films, ''Primar ...

where she was involved with filming of

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 191612 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

and the opening of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

. In 1988, she joined her sister in a re-formed

Chordettes The Chordettes were an American female vocal quartet, specializing in traditional pop music. They are best known for their 1950s hit singles " Mr. Sandman" and "Lollipop", both of which sold over a million copies. Career The group organized in ...

of "Mr. Sandman" fame.

Lynn Evans K. Lynn Evans (born May 19, 1964) is an American educator and politician. Education and teaching career Evans graduated from Aurelia High School in Aurelia, Iowa, in 1982. He then completed his bachelor's degree in physical education and biolo ...

was an original member of that group and Nancy had sung with them for four years. Completing the foursome was Doris Alberti, a long-time

barbershop music Barbershop vocal harmony is a style of a cappella close harmony, or unaccompanied vocal music, characterized by consonance and dissonance, consonant four-part chord (music), chords for every melody note in a primarily homorhythmic texture. Eac ...

singer. hey performed at

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...

, the

Nassau Coliseum Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (or simply the Nassau Coliseum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, on Long Island. The venue is situated approximately east of the eastern limits of the Borough (New York City), borough of Q ...

and toured with

Eddy Arnold Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the ''Billboard'' country music charts, second onl ...

. In 1997 the group disbanded and Jean returned to her first love—playing cello in chamber groups and orchestras.

References

Sources

*Information from interviews with Nancy Overton. Smith College alumni 2000 deaths 1923 births 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers {{US-singer-stub