Helen Ward, whose supple voice and sense of swing contributed to the early success of the Benny Goodman band, has died aged 82. She toured and recorded with Goodman's band from 1934 to 1936 and rejoined him for performances and recordings after the Second World War.
Ward, who lived in Falls Church, Virginia, was born in New York in 1916. She performed in several bands and on radio programs in the city before Goodman heard her at an audition.
She sang with the band on the radio program Let's Dance from December 1934 to May 1935, and recorded many songs, including Goody Goody, It's Been So Long, and the million-seller These Foolish Things.
Ward later performed with bands led by Hal McIntyre and Harry James, and recorded with James, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, Bob Crosby, and Red Norvo, among others.
After retiring in the late 1940s, she rejoined Goodman for tours and recordings in 1953, 1957, and 1958. In 1979, she came out of retirement and performed at clubs in New York.
She is survived by her husband, Bill Savory.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article