Dame Vera Lynn, the endearingly popular "Forces' Sweetheart" who serenaded British troops during World War II, has died at 103.
During the war and long after, Dame Vera got crowds singing, smiling and crying with sentimental favourites such as We'll Meet Again and The White Cliffs of Dover.
Her family said they were "deeply saddened to announce the passing of one of Britain's best-loved entertainers". In a statement, they confirmed she died on Thursday morning local time surrounded by her close relatives at her Ditchling, East Sussex home in the United Kingdom.
Dame Vera possessed a down-to-earth appeal, reminding servicemen of the wives and sweethearts they left behind when they went off to war.
"I was somebody that they could associate with," she once told the Associated Press. "I was an ordinary girl."
Dame Vera's daughter recalled her "wonderful life and fantastic career" during a BBC special on Thursday evening.
"We as a family are very sad that my mother is no longer with us and this programme is a tribute to her wonderful life and her fantastic career," said Virginia Lewis-Jones. "She touched so many people's lives and we are very, very proud of her."
Queen Elizabeth II and her mother, the Queen Mother, were close friends with Dame Vera. Buckingham Palace said Her Majesty will send private condolences to the singer's family.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said her "charm and magical voice entranced and uplifted our country in some of our darkest hours. Her voice will live on to lift the hearts of generations to come".
Manawatū singer Vicki Lee has toured New Zealand singing Dame Vera's songs since 2015 and has met the war-time singer on six occasions.
She posted a song to Facebook singing a tribute song that she wrote about Dame Vera ten years ago.
"I feel [this song] has found its true home - long live the brave spirit of a woman who through her music and humility brought so much comfort to so many. Thank you Dame Vera Lynn," said Lee.
Since helping Dame Malvina Major prepare a music tribute for the 2015 Gallipoli centenary at Anzac Cove, Lee was left with an intimate knowledge of Dame Vera's music and decided to pay her own tribute.
Initial concerts at the Globe Theatre in Palmerston North and around Manawatū were packed out.
"It morphed into the Dame Vera Lynn story far more than the music," Lee told the Manawatū Standard in January. "It's become very profound for me."
Through meeting Dame Vera on six occasions, Lee has been endorsed as an artist who can continue and enrich her memory. She toured Dame Vera's homeland of Sussex in 2018 and attended and performed at a portrait unveiling at the Royal Albert Hall in January.
A portrait of Dame Vera was unveiled at the event and Lee joined 2019 Britain's Got Talent winner Colin Thackery and other singers in a performance of We'll Meet Again.
Lee last visited Dame Vera in October while performing at concerts in the UK and France.
Dame Vera hosted a wildly popular BBC radio show during the war called Sincerely Yours in which she sent messages to British troops abroad and performed the songs they requested. The half-hour program came on during the highly coveted slot following the Sunday night news.
"Winston Churchill was my opening act," she once said.
But Dame Vera once thought the war would doom her chance of success.
"When war first started, when it was declared, I thought, 'Well there goes my career'. You know, I shall finish up in a factory or the army or somewhere," she recalled. "You imagined all the theatres closing down, which didn't happen except when the sirens sounded. And everybody, if they wanted to, they could stay in the theatre and the show would go on."
In September 2009, long after her retirement, Dame Vera topped the British album chart with a hits collection titled We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn. It reached number one, despite competition from the release of remastered Beatles' albums.
Amid this year's coronavirus outbreak, Dame Vera and opera singer Katherine Jenkins released a charity version of We'll Meet Again. Once again the public found comfort in her words of hope, which resonated in the locked-down UK.
In a reflection of her enduring appeal, Queen Elizabeth II also invoked the words of Dame Vera's signature song as she addressed the nation in lockdown. The monarch, who served as an ambulance driver during the war, played on the song's theme, promising that loved ones would be reunited in the end after being separated by the virus.
"We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return," said Her Majesty. "We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again."
Dame Vera earned her nickname, "The Forces' Sweetheart", after being ranked number one in a 1939 Daily Express poll that asked servicemen to name their favourite musical artists. Years later, she reflected on time spent with soldiers abroad.
"What they needed was a contact from home," she said. "I entertained audiences from 2,000 to 6,000. And the boys would just come out of the jungle and sit there for hours waiting until we arrived and then slip back in once we'd left."
A plumber's daughter, Vera Margaret Welch was born on March 20 1917, in London's blue-collar East Ham neighbourhood.
She took her stage name from her grandmother's maiden name. She started singing in social clubs at age 7 and dropped out of school by 11 when she started touring with a travelling variety show. By 17 she was a band singer and at 21 — when the war started — she was a known performer.
She married band musician Harry Lewis in 1941 and he went on to manage her career. They had one daughter, Virginia.
Dame Vera appeared in a handful of films: We'll Meet Again (1942), playing a young dancer who discovers her singing voice; Rhythm Serenade (1943), in which she played a woman who joins the Women's Royal Navy and organizes a nursery in a munitions factory; and One Exciting Night (1944), a comedy about a singer who is mistakenly caught up in a kidnapping.
While Dame Vera is best remembered for her work during the war, she also had success during the post-war years. Her Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart in 1952 became the first record by an English artist to top the American Billboard charts, staying there for nine weeks. Dame Vera's career flourished in the 1950s, peaking with "My Son, My Son," a number one hit in 1954.
After staying away from the business for years, she had a 1970s comeback single Don't You Remember When and even covered Abba's Thank you for the Music but fans still really wanted to hear the wartime classics. Dame Vera was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1975.
In the years that followed she continued to support veterans' causes and raise money for research on cancer and cystic fibrosis. She set up her own charity for children with cerebral palsy and was a forceful advocate for her causes. She played an important part in a 1989 campaign to win a better pension deal for World War II widows and until 2010 was actively involved in various veterans charities.
On occasion, Dame Vera delighted fans by taking up the microphone again. She sang outside Buckingham Palace in 1995 in a ceremony marking the golden jubilee of VE Day. In recent years, Dame Vera lived a quiet village life in Ditchling, about 40 miles (65 kilometres) south of London.
She did make fleeting mini-appearances, particularly when veterans were involved. During ceremonies last year to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, she recorded a message that was played to a ballroom full of veterans on a ship sailing to France to mark the event. Tears flowed as Dame Vera spoke. When she was done, thunderous applause rattled the windows.
The veterans remembered her many appearances and the fact that she travelled to Burma to entertain the troops, one of the few entertainers to make the difficult journey.
Burma veteran Captain Sir Tom Moore, who won the hearts of the UK when he walked 100 laps of his garden in the days before his 100th birthday to raise money for the National Health Service during the coronavirus pandemic, described her death as a "real shame."
"A real shame, I really thought Vera Lynn would live longer. She's been speaking so well on TV recently. She had a huge impact on me in Burma and remained important to me throughout my life. My thoughts are with Dame Vera Lynn's family at this sad time," his representative posted on Twitter.
Another veteran, Mervyn Kersh, told the Associated Press that he remembered her beauty and her voice. But more importantly, he remembered a message that resonated with troops far from home.
"She sang songs which expressed feeling, with lyrics which were very meaningful for me and everyone I knew, as they expressed the sentiments and hopes of a generation from the disaster of Dunkirk, the Blitz, North Africa and the long wait until Normandy," said Kersh. "I am very sorry to learn that she has gone but thankful for the 103 years she gave us."
TRIBUTES FOR "THE FORCES' SWEETHEART" DAME VERA LYNN
Tributes have poured in from political leaders, entertainers, veterans and thousands of fans after English singer Dame Vera Lynn died on Thursday (local time), aged 103.
On social media, Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said, "her songs still speak to the nation in 2020 just as they did in 1940".
Singer Katherine Jenkins, who performed Dame Vera's wartime classics for the VE Day anniversary last month posted:
"I simply cannot find the words to explain just how much I adored this wonderful lady. Her voice brought comfort to millions in their darkest hours, her songs filled the nation's hearts with hope and her emotive performances, whether home or abroad, then or now, helped to get us through."
Sir Cliff Richard said Dame Vera was "a great singer" and "a genuine icon".
Sir Elton John described Dame Vera as a "genuine British icon".
"She galvanised Britain during its darkest hours — bringing people together through her music and healing the nation. She was elegant, humble and had the voice of an angel. She will live on in the hearts of millions," he posted.
In a photo tribute on Twitter and Instagram, Clarence House posted pictures of Dame Vera meeting the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
The Royal British Legion described her as "an unforgettable British icon" and a "symbol of hope to the Armed Forces community past and present".
The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, said she was a "hero" who captured the "sense of longing felt by so many during our darkest hour", while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said she "lifted our nation and its Armed Forces in their moment of maximum peril".
Sir Paul McCartney said Dame Vera was "a strong and inspiring lady".
"Dame Vera Lynn was a strong and inspiring lady who has done so much for Britain. I am so sad to hear of her passing but at the same time so glad to have met her and experienced first-hand her warm, fun-loving personality. Her voice will sing in my heart forever. Thanks Vera," he said.
Source: Associated Press, BBC and Manawatū Standard
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