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Cynthia Strother, One-Half of the Singing Bell Sisters, Dies at 88


Bell Sisters singer Cynthia Strother is dead. She was 88.

The eldest of seven kids — their dad, Gene, was an electrician for an aviation company — Cynthia Sue Strother was born on Oct. 4, 1935, in Harlan County, Kentucky, and raised with her family in Seal Beach, California. Adopting their mother Edith’s maiden name of Bell for their act, the girls performed in October 1951 on a local KNXT-TV show called “Peter Potter’s Search for a Song.” One of the judges of the evening’s amateur compositions was a music publisher, who immediately recognized the tune’s potential. The girls were rushed into a Hollywood studio to demo the song for orchestra leader Henri Rene, the West Coast A&R man for RCA-Victor, and “Bermuda” was quickly released in March 1952, eventually rising to No.

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