Eydie Gorme, 84, a pop vocalist who entertained nightclub audiences and TV viewers as a solo artist and with her husband, Steve Lawrence, died Saturday.
Gorme died at a Las Vegas hospital of an undisclosed illness, said her publicist, Howard Bragman.
Since the mid-1950s, first as a soloist and then as part of the Steve and Eydie duo, Gorme sang pop hits, standards and show tunes while decked out in sequins and engaging in playful stage patter.
Her first album with Lawrence, “We Got Us,” won a Grammy Award in 1960. The two also recorded separately, he making Billboard’s top 10 with “Go Away Little Girl” in 1962 and she having a hit with “Blame It on the Bossa Nova” in 1963 and winning a Grammy for “If He Walked into My Life” in 1966. Together they starred in the Broadway musical “Golden Rainbow” in 1968.
“Eydie has been my partner onstage and in life for more than 55 years,” Lawrence said in a statement. “I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time.”
Gorme was born Aug. 16, 1928, in the Bronx, N.Y., to Sephardic Jewish immigrants. Her father was a tailor from Sicily and her mother was from Turkey. Before her singing career took off, Gorme worked as a Spanish-language interpreter.
Gorme and Lawrence won an Emmy for the 1978 special “Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin,” and on tour as a duo and opening for Frank Sinatra and others.
Besides her husband of nearly 56 years, Gorme is survived by their son David and a granddaughter.
