When I think of Doris Day, two things stand out in my mind: The song Sentimental Journey and the movie Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson.  Probably because these were my mom’s two favorite Doris Day contributions and became mine as well. Like Doris Day, my mom would have also turned 92 this year.

Doris Day  was born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3, 1924.

Doris Day’s career started in the big band as a singer in 1939.  She recorded Sentimental Journey in 1945 and it became her first hit song and also the song most associated with her.  Day was a part of Les Brown and His Band of Renown until she began a career as a solo performer with Columbia Records, which was the only record label she was ever signed.  Doris Day recorded over 650 recordings with Columbia Records from 1947 to 1967. And received A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as well as a Legend Award from the Society of Singers. Her twenty-ninth album “My Heart” helped her to achieve the status of oldest living artist with a UK Top ten album containing new material.

She was not only a singer but an actress as well with a successful film career in such movies as Teacher’s Pet, Pillow Talk (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), Love Come Back, Send Me No Flowers, That Touch of Mink and The Thrill of It All and Move Over Darling.  And Doris Day is the sixth ranked among the top ten box office stars male and female.

In addition to Doris Day’s Academy Award nomination for Pillow Talk,  she was awarded three Henrietts Awards, Los Angles Film Critics Association’s Career Achievement Award and the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in film.

Doris Day is passionate about animal welfare and co-founded Actors and Others for Animals.  She has several non-profit organizations, the Doris Day Animal Foundation and the Doris Day Animal League.

She no longer performs but continues to support animal rights and welfare.  But the legacy and her music and films will live on forever.

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