June Carroll (1917 – May 16, 2004) was an American

lyricist A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income derives ...

, singer and actress. Born June Sillman in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, Carroll appeared in the Broadway musical ''

New Faces of 1952 ''New Faces of 1952'', also known as ''Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952'', is a 1952 musical revue with songs and comedy skits, produced and conceived by Leonard Sillman. It was the fourth of Sillman's seven ''New Faces'' revues, each intended ...

'', introducing the now-standard ''

Guess Who I Saw Today "Guess Who I Saw Today" is a popular jazz song written by Murray Grand with lyrics by Elisse Boyd. The song was originally composed for Leonard Sillman's Broadway musical revue, ''New Faces of 1952'', in which it was sung by June Carroll.Origina ...

'', by Elise Boyd and

Murray Grand Murray Grand (August 27, 1919 – March 7, 2007) was an American singer, songwriter, lyricist, and pianist best known for the song " Guess Who I Saw Today". Born in Philadelphia, Grand played piano as a teenager. During World War II, he served ...

, as well as two songs that she wrote with Arthur Siegel, "Penny Candy" and "Love Is a Simple Thing".(Album notes), ''Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952'', RCA Victor LOC 1008 Song credits from

The

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was an American swing jazz band popular in the 1950s. The orchestra was led by Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan, who were both experienced big band arrangers. Sauter played mellophone, trumpet, and drums, and had attende ...

recorded "Love Is a Simple Thing." She and Siegel also wrote "

Monotonous Monotone refers to a sound, for example music or speech, that has a single unvaried tone. See pure tone and monotonic scale. Monotone or monotonicity may also refer to: In economics * Monotone preferences, a property of a consumer's preference ...

", introduced by

Eartha Kitt Eartha Mae Kitt (née Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress. She was known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Baby" ...

in the show. It became one of her signature songs.

Personal life

She was the sister of the Broadway producer

Leonard Sillman Leonard Sillman (May 9, 1908 - January 23, 1982) was an American Broadway producer. Born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 9, 1908, he was the brother of June Carroll, the brother-in-law of Sidney Carroll and the uncle of Steve Reich and Jonathan Carrol ...

, who produced ''New Faces of 1952'', and the wife of Sidney Carroll, the screenwriter. She had four children, including composer

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

from her first marriage, in 1935, to Leonard Reich, and

Jonathan Carroll Jonathan Samuel Carroll (born January 26, 1949) is an American fiction writer primarily known for novels that may be labelled magic realism, slipstream or contemporary fantasy. He has lived in Austria since 1974. Life and work Carroll was bo ...

and David Carroll, American authors, from her second marriage, in 1940. Carroll died from complications of Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles at the age of 86.

References

General references

''Variety'' "June Carroll: Performer, Singer and Broadway Lyricist"
(archive from 12 November 2012, accessed 23 March 2018).

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, June 1917 births 2004 deaths American musical theatre lyricists American women lyricists American stage actresses Jewish American actresses Actresses from Detroit 20th-century American songwriters Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women