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Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Don Soffer, who sketched an idea for Aventura on a napkin, dies at 92
Aventura began as a sketch on a napkin. Now it's home to the biggest mall in Florida, one of the five biggest in the country. Aventura is also one of Miami-Dade's poshest — and busiest — neighborhoods. Real estate mogul Don Soffer, developer of Florida's Aventura Mall and the city's 'godfather,' died Sunday morning at 92, his son-in-law Craig Robins and The Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center said. The synagogue was founded by Soffer. In a statement to CBS News Miami, the city of Aventura called Soffer a 'visionary developer and philanthropist whose leadership and foresight transformed South Florida swampland into the thriving, vibrant community we proudly call home.' The condo community, once an unincorporated slice of Miami-Dade, became a city 30 years ago. 'Mr. Soffer's legacy is etched into the very foundation of Aventura,' the city said in a statement. 'His development of what would become the city's heart — from Aventura Mall to residential communities and the Turnberry golf course and brand — laid the groundwork for Aventura's incorporation in 1995. Without his vision, the city of Aventura would not exist as we know it today.' In addition, there's a charter school, Don Soffer Aventura High School that was named after him in 2019; the Don Soffer Clinical Research Center, a part of UHealth, the University of Miami Health System on Northwest 14th Street in Miami; and a three-mile Don Soffer Exercise Trail on West Country Club Drive that rings Aventura. In June, Aventura Mall, under the stewardship of his daughter Jackie Soffer, chairman and CEO of Turnberry Associates, the real estate development group that has principle ownership of Aventura Mall, was voted the best in the country in USA's Readers Choice Awards. MORE: This Miami area mall was just voted best in the country. Here's why it's No. 1 Real estate developer Robins, who developed Miami's Design District and co-founded Design Miami, is married to Jackie Soffer. He called the family patriarch his 'hero' in an Instagram post on Sunday. 'He had the vision and fortitude to take swamp land and transform it into a city,' Robins wrote. 'Following such a dynamic and visionary parent can be especially hard for their successors. Jackie has managed to brilliantly take what Don did and carry it forward.' Soffer was a 'builder of community.' He turned Aventura into 'a model city that continues to grow and flourish. Though Don Soffer never held a formal title in Aventura's government, he was, in every sense, the godfather of the city,' the City of Aventura told CBS News Miami. Famous folks like tennis champ Jimmy Connors and his wife Patti Maguire Connors, John McEnroe and Princess Caroline once owned Aventura condos. Cirque du Soleil hosted its first big show in South Florida at Turnberry in 1989. Pop superstar Elton John, a frequent guest at Turnberry Isle in the 1980s, lit the torch for the venue's Whole Earth Run in 1986. Actors James Caan and 'Where the Boys Are' co-star George Hamilton dined with Soffer in Turnberry Isle. The Monkey Business Soffer's success also afforded him the opportunity to own a mega yacht. Alas, that yacht's name became infamous after the Miami Herald exposed a scandal concerning Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart in May 1987. Hart was aboard the Monkey Business yacht he'd leased from Soffer. So was his date Donna Rice. They weren't married. A photo of the pair — Hart clad in a white T shirt reading 'Monkey Business Crew' and Rice perched atop his lap — ran in the National Enquirer in June 1987, weeks after Hart ended his campaign. The Herald's reporting on the affair led Hart to suspend his campaign as a Democratic candidate in the 1988 presidential race. After the Coast Guard seized half a marijuana cigarette on The Monkey Business in June 1988 — no one said to whom the roach belonged but the feds were into 'zero tolerance' at the time of television's 'Miami Vice' — Soffer had had enough. 'I'm thinking very seriously of changing the name,' Soffer told a Miami Herald columnist in 1988. 'They handcuffed the crew and confined them to the fly bridge under armed guard. Then they came up and said, 'Look what we found.' They could have brought the thing on with them. They just wanted to see where Donna Rice and Gary Hart slept. If this hadn't been the Monkey Business, it never would have happened.' Soffer teased the new name for the Monkey Business could be 'The None of Your Business.' Instead, he sold the yacht. Building Aventura from a napkin sketch MORE: What did Aventura Mall look like when it opened four decades ago? See for yourself All of this fame, success and admiration from associates, friends and family stemmed from notes scribbled on a cocktail napkin. In the 1960s, the Pittsburgh Soffers, including Don, loved visiting Miami 'to golf, boat and swim in the ocean,' his family said. The Aventura and Turnberry neighborhood began when Soffer visited Northeast Miami-Dade with his father Harry Soffer, a Pittsburgh mall developer, in 1967. The father-son duo were scouting sites for a possible shopping mall. 'The first thought was to build a mall here,' said Soffer, then a principal of Turnberry Associates in a 1988 Miami Herald story. 'Most of the land was under water. I sketched out on a napkin what I thought would fit into this property beside the shopping center.' Soffer kept that napkin for years. More than 20 years after scribbling on it, and about 16 before Aventura Mall opened in 1983, and seven years before the city of Aventura was officially incorporated in 1995, Soffer told the Herald reporter in 1988 that he'd found the cocktail napkin. 'It's remarkable how close it is to the actual development,' Soffer said. Early life and education Donald Morley Soffer was born on Sept. 20, 1932, in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. In 1954, Soffer graduated from Brandeis University in Massachusetts with a bachelor of arts in economics. He attended Brandeis on a football scholarship. After graduation, Soffer weighed a few choices. He had an opportunity to join the San Francisco 49ers, the military or the family business. He chose the latter two options, his family said in an obituary. Soffer served in the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division, today known as the 'Screaming Eagles.' He then returned to nearby Pittsburgh and went into construction and real estate with his father to develop suburban shopping centers. Aventura means adventure In 1967, Soffer and his business partners co-led a groundbreaking deal to acquire 785 acres of swampland in Miami-Dade. He founded Turnberry Associates to realize that vision, his family said. Not everyone was on board. Environmentalists and controlled growth advocates didn't share Soffer's vision for the land. Through a friend, Soffer secured a five-minute meeting with then Florida Gov. Claude Kirk in Tallahassee. Soffer, his family said, often shared the story that he convinced Gov. Kirk that his idea to employ 4,000 people in a $100 million construction project to create a modern city where 100,000 people would visit daily was actually Kirk's own idea. 'That way, Kirk could pitch it to his cabinet and take full credit. That salesmanship sealed the deal,' his family wrote in his obituary. In 1969, the county approved Soffer's ambitious 23,900 condominium unit master plan. Over the 1970s and 1980s, Soffer and his business partners would go on to create what is now the City of Aventura, building everything from high-rises and golf resorts to libraries, fire stations and Aventura Mall. According to a January 2012 Biscayne Times article, local author and historian Seth Bramson said Soffer came up with the city's name after telling his father, who died in 1972 at 63, that developing the city would be an 'adventure.' Aventura is Spanish for adventure. Soffer expanded his footprint with other real estate projects like Turnberry Isle Resort and the purchase and restoration of Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Turnberry is currently led by his daughter Jackie Soffer, who used to lead it with her brother Jeffrey as co-chief executives before they split ownership in 2019. Jeffrey Soffer currently leads Fontainebleau Development and owns the Miami Beach Fontainebleau hotel and the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Aventura Mall secured South Florida's first Macy's when it opened in 1983. The Northeast Miami-Dade mall, under his daughter's leadership, recently welcomed Florida's first Eataly Italian marketplace. Other Florida first recent arrivals include Massimo Dutti wardrobe store, the fashion boutique Cinq à Sept, Dolce Vita footwear and Kim Kardashian's Skims store. Philanthropy and honors Outside of construction and real estate, Soffer, who championed an outdoors lifestyle through frequent fishing, boating and camping excursions with his children, was a philanthropist. He donated $15 million to Brandeis University. He was given an honorary doctorate at Brandeis in 2023 and inducted into the Brandeis Athletcis Hall of Fame in 2009. Soffer also supported the University of Miami, Mount Sinai Medical Center and helped establish the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center in honor of his parents, Ida and Harry, as well as helping to build the New Hope orphanage in Haiti, his family said. His other contributions include City of Hope, Best Buddies, Breast Cancer Initiative and the Humane Society of Greater Miami. He received the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award in 2024. Survivors and services Soffer's survivors include his wife, Michele King Soffer; his sister Rita; children Marsha, Jackie, Jeffrey, Brooke, Rock and Abigail; 13 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. His funeral service was held on Monday, July 21, in the Harry & Ida Soffer Sanctuary at the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami contributed to this report.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Connie Francis, ‘Where the Boys Are' Singer and Actress, Dies at 87
Connie Francis, the actress and beloved pop vocalist who had hits with 'Who's Sorry Now?,' 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool,' 'Stupid Cupid' and 'Where the Boys Are' before her life took several turbulent turns, has died. She was 87. Ron Roberts, her friend and the president of her label, Concetta Records, shared the news Thursday on Facebook. More from The Hollywood Reporter Simon Cowell Will Look for a New Boy Band in Netflix Series Bruce Springsteen, Penélope Cruz, Bowen Yang and Walter Salles to be Honored at 2025 Academy Museum Gala Joanna Bacon, British Actress Known for 'Love Actually' and 'Breeders,' Dies at 72 'It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that i inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night,' he wrote in a note that was reposted by the official Francis account on Facebook. 'I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news.' The news comes after the star was hospitalized this month. 'I am back in the hospital where I have been undergoing tests and checks to determine the cause(s) of the extreme pain I have been experiencing,' she wrote July 2 on Facebook. Francis had recently seen an unexpected streaming surge as her 1962 tune 'Pretty Little Baby' had become one of the biggest songs on TikTok this year. As of July, it has been featured in more than 2 million TikTok videos and has nearly 85 million streams on Spotify. A New Jersey native, Francis set the tone for the likes of Madonna and Lady Gaga and 'had a powerful voice that could sound like a sob while staying on key,' San Francisco critic Neva Chonin once noted. One of the most commercially successful female singers of all time, she sold 42 million records by the time she was 26 and, according to her website, 200 million-plus records around the world during her career. On the heels of her newfound celebrity, famed MGM producer Joe Pasternak tapped Francis to portray the romantically challenged Angie, one of four co-eds on spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and sing the title song for Where the Boys Are (1960). The coming-of-age film, also starring Paula Prentiss, Dolores Hart and Yvette Mimieux, was a box office hit, and her tune reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. Francis also sang it in Italian, Spanish, French, German and Japanese during the same New York City recording session in November 1960, and it would soar to No. 1 in 19 countries. As Francis churned out one top 10 hit after another, she starred in three more MGM movies, all musicals: Follow the Boys (1963), shot on location on the French and Italian Riviera and also featuring Prentiss; Looking for Love (1964), with Jim Hutton and Johnny Carson; and When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965), featuring Herman's Hermits. Francis never wanted to be an actress, she told Nick Thomas in 2017. 'I asked the studio why they couldn't come up with a title without the word 'boys' in it!' she said. 'People knew [When the Boys Meet the Girls] was another lame Connie Francis movie and they stayed home. I was so pleased it was my last one.' (In 1984, she declined an offer from producer Allan Carr to appear in his remake of Where the Boys Are.) In 1958, Francis shot to stardom with her rendition of 'Who's Sorry Now?,' a 1923 tune written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby that had been recorded by Bing Crosby and performed in French by Lisette Verea in the Marx Brothers' A Night in Casablanca (1946). With 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool' in June 1960, Francis became the first woman to have a No. 1 song on the Hot 100 (the chart was almost two years old at the time). She reached the pinnacle again three months later with 'My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own' and had a third chart-topper with 'Don't Break the Heart That Loves You' in March 1962. Francis accumulated many other top 10 hits, including 'My Happiness,' 'Lipstick on Your Collar,' 'Frankie' and 'Among My Souvenirs,' all released in 1959; 'Mama' — she said that was her personal favorite — and 'Many Tears Ago' from 1960; 'Together' and 'Breakin' in a Brand New Broken Heart' from 1961; and 'When the Boy in Your Arms (Is the Boy In Your Heart),' 'Second Hand Love' and 'Vacation' from 1962. Her personal life, however, was filled with tragedy. Her self-described one true love, singer Bobby Darin, was chased away by her strict father before they could elope, and she had four unhappy marriages, two miscarriages and a son that lived for only 10 days; was raped at knifepoint in a Long Island motel; her brother was murdered, gangland style; botched nasal surgery took away her singing voice for years; and she was diagnosed with manic depression and involuntarily institutionalized 17 times. 'I would like to be remembered, not so much for the heights I have reached, but for the depths from which I have come,' she often said. Concetta Maria Franconero was born on Dec. 12, 1937, in Newark, the daughter of Ida and George, a roofer who would become the dominating architect of her career. She began taking accordion lessons when she was 3, but her talents as a singer quickly became obvious. At 14, she was making demonstration records for publishers to pitch unreleased songs to popular singers — they'd say, 'C'mon Connie, give it a Rosemary Clooney sound. Give it that great Patti Page or Jo Stafford sound' — when she appeared on the CBS program Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. During rehearsals, the host had trouble pronouncing her name and suggested she go by Connie Francis. While getting stellar grades at Arts High School and Belleville High School, she appeared from 1953-55 on NBC's Startime Kids. George Scheck, a producer on that variety show, became her manager and shopped her around to record companies; after being turned down by Mitch Miller at Columbia Records and many others, she got a 20-side, two-year deal from Harry Meyerson at MGM Records. She sang for Tuesday Weld in Rock, Rock, Rock (1956) and for Freda Holloway in Jamboree (1957), but her singles were not doing well, with 'The Majesty of Love,' at No. 93, her only one to chart. With her MGM contract about to expire, she was going to accept a scholarship to study medicine at NYU when, hounded by her father, she reluctantly recorded 'Who's Sorry Now?' with 16 minutes left on her final studio session. She thought the song was 'square.' Championed by American Bandstand's Dick Clark — 'without Dick Clark, there would be no Connie Francis,' she said — 'Who's Sorry Now?' sold more than 1 million copies and spent 22 weeks on the Hot 100 in 1958. Suddenly, she was headlining the Copacabana in New York City and the Sahara in Las Vegas, starring on her own ABC special and getting 5,000 fan letters a week. Francis had further success in 1958 with the rock 'n' roll hit 'Stupid Cupid,' written by Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield. And when Pasternak advised her that he had commissioned the Oscar-winning songwriting team of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen to pen 'Where the Boys Are,' she pushed for Sedaka and Greenfield to be considered, and it was their song that she performed. In 1960, Francis was named Miss Coca-Cola and made four appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. She would be showcased on the program more than two dozen times. Her 1963 song 'In the Summer of His Years,' written as a tribute to John F. Kennedy, was an early charity record, with proceeds going to dependents of the policemen injured during the assassination. In 1964, she was given a special Golden Globe for her 'international contribution to the recording world.' Later, she performed for the U.S. troops in Vietnam. For all her success, she said she passed on opportunities to record such songs as 'Strangers in the Night,' 'Somewhere My Love,' 'Danke Shoen,' 'Angel in the Morning' and tunes written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. 'I think more songs I turned down than songs I recorded were hits,' she told Ira David Sternberg in a 2018 interview. Her father also rejected a lucrative offer from Frank Sinatra that would have had her record and make movies and TV specials for his Reprise Records. Her last song to chart came in 1969. After three years of inactivity that resulted in part from her miscarriage, Francis began a nationwide tour in November 1974 at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island. On the fourth night of her engagement, she was raped in her room at a Howard Johnson Motel Lodge. She didn't appreciate that the news generated headlines around the world. 'I didn't want to be thought of as a 'professional victim,'' she said in 1984. Francis was depressed and couldn't get out of bed for months, and in July 1976, a jury awarded her $2.6 million, finding the Howard Johnson chain responsible for her unsafe room. Surgery to widen her nasal passages in 1977 left her unable to sing for four years, and it would take three subsequent operations to restore her singing ability. 'When I lost my voice, I lost myself. It's as simple as that,' she said on her website. 'My voice was the thing that had always defined me — it was who I was. Singing was the one and only thing I was born to do. I felt like a surgeon whose hands had been amputated.' In March 1981, her younger brother, Georgie, 40, who had pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges and had given law enforcement officials information concerning alleged organized-crime activities, was shot to death in front of his New Jersey home. Her eight-year run of stays in psychiatric hospitals ended in 1991 when she said she was properly diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2018, the first of her planned three-part memoir, Among My Souvenirs (The Real Story), was published. After 'dating the swingers of the world but never doing the horizontal cha-cha-cha with any of them,' Francis married publicist Dick Kanellis in August 1964 but filed for divorce five months later, citing mental cruelty. She wed beauty salon owner Izzy Marion, owner of beauty salons in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, in January 1971; they divorced 10 months later. She also was married to restaurateur and travel agent Joseph Garzilli from 1973-77 and to TV producer Bob Parkinson in 1985. Both of those unions ended in divorce, too. (Her romance with Darin has been revisited on Broadway in the jukebox musical Just in Time, with Jonathan Groff and Gracie Lawrence portraying the singers.) On Thursday, Lawrence appeared with her Just in Time castmates in New York's Bryant Park and performed 'Who's Sorry Now.' 'I'm going to sing a Connie song now. I implore you to listen to the real thing after [this performance],' she said. 'You'll hear resilience, character, personality, humor, tenderness and strength. You can hear all of that in her voice … which she knew. I would also say that because we're not in a Broadway theater right now, we have the unique opportunity to all sing along, which I know also would've meant a lot to her because her relationship with her fans was everything to her. So, if you know this song, 'Who's Sorry Now,' please sing along. I believe it would mean a lot to her.' Survivors include her adopted son, Joey. 'There are a lot of people who have had my success in this business,' she told Gary James in an interview conducted in the late '90s. 'There were exhilarating highs and abysmal lows. But, it was fighting to get out of those lows that I feel most proud of. 'It was a struggle to reconcile all of the tragedies that had occurred in my life, and I'd like to be known for my music. I'm always honored and privileged when people remember, and it brings back happy memories for a lot of people, and that makes me happy.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Debbie Nightingale, Hot Docs Festival Co-Founder, Dies at 71
Debbie Nightingale, a co-founder of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which eventually became the largest documentary event in North America, died July 10 after a bout with cancer. She was 71. 'Every part of the Hot Docs we know today grew from what Debbie helped establish,' execs at the Toronto-based festival said in a statement. 'She recognized the importance of documentary filmmaking and providing a place where filmmakers, funders and audiences could connect. Without her, we wouldn't be here. Her legacy will be forever felt, and she will be truly missed.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Three Six Zero Names Aimee Jessiman U.K. Head of Management Locarno Director on 'Dracula,' Jackie Chan and Hosting a Film Festival With the World "in Flames" Connie Francis, 'Where the Boys Are' Singer and Actress, Dies at 87 Nightingale and veteran documentary maker Paul Jay in 1993 launched a documentary showcase that would eventually become Hot Docs. She helped raise the initial $100,000 to get the festival off the ground and served as its first festival manager and later as executive director. Born in Toronto on Oct. 14, 1953, Nightingale had been producing the Trade Forum at the Festival of Festivals, the forerunner of the Toronto International Film Festival, when Jay urged her to explore the launch of a documentary showcase for the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, today known as the Documentary Organization of Canada. 'It was because of her involvement, on spec, that the festival flew,' Jay told the POV Magazine in a 2007 interview. Nightingale went on to become a prolific film and TV producer, with such credits as the TV series Living in Your Car, the hockey movie Chicks With Sticks and the animal adventure comedy Bailey's Billion$, which starred Jennifer Tilly and Dean Cain. She eventually left the Canadian film and TV industry to run the Haute Goat Farm as a farmer. 'Debbie was not only the founder but the true heart and soul of Haute Goat — a dreamer, a doer and an inspiration to all who crossed her path. Her love for animals, people and the land was the magic behind every visit, every experience and every smile on the farm,' the Facebook page for the farm in Port Hope, Ontario, wrote in remembrance. Nightingale is survived by her husband, Shain Jaffe, a retired literary agent, and her children, Sarah, Leland and Noah. The family asks that donations in her memory be made to the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Solve the daily Crossword
Hype Malaysia
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hype Malaysia
'Pretty Little Baby' Singer Connie Francis Passes Away At 87
Many singers have left their mark on the music industry, and their legacies continue to live on. This artist, iconic in her own right, will not only be remembered by fans from her era but also by the new generation discovering her through social media. If you've spent any time on TikTok or Instagram for the past two months, you've most likely come across countless videos using the 1962 song 'Pretty Little Baby'. It was reported that Connie Francis, the singer behind the viral hit, has sadly passed away. She was 87 years old. Earlier this month, Connie Francis reassured fans that her health was improving after being hospitalised for severe pain she was experiencing. Sadly, yesterday (Thursday, 17th July), Ron Roberts, a longtime friend and president of Concetta Records, confirmed the news that the icon had passed away the night before. 'I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news,' he wrote in a statement that was also shared on the singer's official Facebook page. The cause of death has yet to be disclosed. Connie Francis is well known for many of her hits, including 'Stupid Cupid' — famously covered by Mandy Moore in 'The Princess Diaries' — 'Where the Boys Are', and the recently viral 'Pretty Little Baby'. The 1962 song has been featured in countless TikTok and Instagram videos, often used to celebrate newborns or express appreciation for a loved one. It has also become popular in more playful and comedic content. Regardless of the context, the world has fallen back in love with the track. After the song went viral, Connie admitted to PEOPLE that she wasn't sure what the sudden attention meant, revealing that she had even forgotten about the song's existence until she was reminded of it. Nevertheless, she expressed her gratitude to those who showed appreciation for her music. Just two months after 'Pretty Little Baby' went viral, fans are now mourning the death of the icon. We'd like to extend our deepest condolences to her singer's loved ones. May they have the strength to get through this difficult time. Let us all remember Connie by enjoying the viral song one more time. Sources: Facebook, PEOPLE, MalayMail
Otago Daily Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
'Stupid Cupid' singer Connie Francis dead at 87
Connie Francis performs during the 31st Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series at Asser Levy Park in New York City in July 2009. Photo: Getty Connie Francis, the American pop singer who topped the charts in the 1950s and 1960s with genre-spanning songs of youthful love and heartbreak, died on Wednesday night (local time), her manager says. She was 87. Francis had been hospitalised earlier in July with severe pelvic pain, spending some time in intensive care, manager Ron Roberts said. He did not give the place or cause of death. With a powerful, clear voice that could be both peppy and plaintive, Francis sold tens of millions of records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the skittering lovesick hit "Stupid Cupid" and the lush, maudlin songs "Who's Sorry Now" and "Where the Boys Are." In 1960, when she was 21, she became the first woman to hold the No 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with the release of "Everybody's Somebody's Fool." She went on to record the song in German – "Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel" – and became a keen polyglot in the studio, releasing covers of her hits in Italian, Spanish and several other languages. Francis was born on December 12, 1937, in Newark, New Jersey, to Italian-American parents who named her Concetta Franconero. A talent scout in the 1950s urged her to change her stage name to something radio DJs might find simpler to pronounce. In her memoir, she describes her father, who scraped a living as a labourer in the shipyards and factories of New York, as the most powerful force throughout her life, helping her learn to play the accordion as a child. "I played the accordion the way I did everything else in life – with a vengeance!" she wrote. "Music became my sole focus in life." It was at his urging, Francis wrote, that she recorded what would become her first hit: "Who's Sorry Now" It was at her father's insistence that she stopped dating the singer Bobby Darin in the 1950s. She described not eloping with Darin as one of her life's greatest regrets. Earlier this year, her 1962 recording "Pretty Little Baby" became a viral sensation on the social media app TikTok, with users lip-syncing to it in videos seen by millions. She told People magazine she had forgotten she ever recorded the song. "To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is touching the hearts of millions of people is truly awesome," she said.
