For the woman crowned Miss Alabama 2003, see Catherine Crosby.
Olive Kathryn Crosby (néeGrandstaff; November 25, 1933 – September 20, 2024) was an American actress and singer who performed in films under the stage names Kathryn Grant and Kathryn Grandstaff.[1]
Early life and education
Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff on November 25, 1933, in West Columbia, Texas, to Delbert Emery Grandstaff Sr. and Olive Catherine Grandstaff (née Stokely).[2] Kathryn had four siblings. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1955. Two years later, she married widower Bing Crosby, 30 years her senior. The couple had three children: Harry, Mary Frances, and Nathaniel.[3]
Career
Kathryn's film career began in 1953.[4] She had featured roles such as Princess Parisa in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and in the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959). She also played the part of Mama Bear with her husband and children in Goldilocks, and she co-starred with Jack Lemmon in the comedy Operation Mad Ball (1957), with Tony Curtis in the drama Mister Cory (1957), and as a trapeze artist in The Big Circus (1959). However, Crosby largely retired from acting by the 1960s.
On June 16, 1963, Crosby became a registered nurse after studying at Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles.[5][6]
Crosby appeared as a guest star on her husband's 1964–1965 sitcom The Bing Crosby Show.
In the mid-1970s, she hosted The Kathryn Crosby Show, a 30-minute local talk show on KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Husband Bing appeared as a guest occasionally. After Bing Crosby's death in 1977, she took on a few smaller roles and the lead in the short-lived 1996 Broadway musical State Fair.
From 1985-2001, Crosby hosted the Crosby National Golf Tournament at Bermuda Run Country Club in Bermuda Run, North Carolina. A nearby bridge carrying U.S. Route 158 over the Yadkin River is named for Kathryn Crosby.[7]
On November 4, 2010, Crosby was seriously injured in an automobile accident in the Sierra Nevada that killed her second husband, 85-year-old Maurice William Sullivan, whom she had married in 2000.[8]
On June 1, 2014, Crosby sang in a Rodgers and Hart tribute.[9]
Death
Crosby died on September 20, 2024, at the age of 90.[10] She is interred in the family plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.
Filmography
References
^"Kathryn Grant". Retrieved September 1, 2014.
^"Kathryn Grant". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
^"Bing Crosby's Former California Estate Is for Sale for $13.8 Million". People. March 29, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
^Harris, Beth (September 21, 2024). "Kathryn Crosby, actor and widow of famed singer and Oscar-winning actor Bing Crosby, dies at 90". Associated Press. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
^"1963 Press Photo Kathryn Crosby wife Bing Crosby nurse cap Queen Angels School". Historic Images. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
^West, Richard; Thackrey, Ted Jr. (October 15, 1977). "From the Archives: Bing Crosby Dies at 73 on Golf Course". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
^Jim Sparks, "Crews to Start Work on Bridge," Winston-Salem Journal, November 21, 2007.
^Martin Griffith (December 2, 2010). "Bing Crosby's widow recovering from accident". Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 21, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
^"Saratoga: Kathryn Crosby to sing in Rodgers and Hart tribute". The Mercury News. May 21, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
^Buenahora, Andrés (September 21, 2024). "Kathryn Crosby, Actor and Widow of Bing Crosby, Dies at 90". Variety. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
External links
Bing Crosby
Albums
Music of Hawaii (1939)
Victor Herbert Melodies, Vol. One (1939)
Patriotic Songs for Children (1939)
Cowboy Songs (Bing Crosby's first solo album) (1939)
Victor Herbert Melodies, Vol. Two (1939)
George Gershwin Songs, Vol. One (1939)
Ballad for Americans (Bing Crosby's first solo studio album)(1940)
Favorite Hawaiian Songs (1940)
Christmas Music (1940)
Star Dust (1940)
Hawaii Calls (1941)
Small Fry (1941)
Crosbyana (1941)
Under Western Skies (1941)
Song Hits from Holiday Inn (w/ Fred Astaire) (1942)
Merry Christmas (1945)
Selections from Going My Way (1945)
Selections from The Bells of St. Mary's (1946)
Don't Fence Me In (w/ The Andrews Sisters) (1946)
The Happy Prince (1946)
Selections from Road to Utopia (1946)
Bing Crosby – Stephen Foster (1946)
What We So Proudly Hail (1946)
Favorite Hawaiian Songs, Vol. One (1946)
Favorite Hawaiian Songs, Vol. Two (1946)
Blue Skies (w/ Fred Astaire and Irving Berlin) (1946)
Bing Crosby – Jerome Kern (1946)
St. Patrick's Day (1947)
Bing Crosby – Victor Herbert (1947)
Cowboy Songs, Vol. One (1947)
Selections from Welcome Stranger (1947)
Our Common Heritage (1947)
El Bingo (1947)
The Small One (1947)
The Man Without a Country (1947)
Drifting and Dreaming (1947)
Blue of the Night (1948)
Selections from Showboat (1948)
The Emperor Waltz (1948)
St. Valentine's Day (1948)
Bing Crosby Sings with Al Jolson, Bob Hope, Dick Haymes and the Andrews Sisters (1948)
Selections from Road to Rio (1948)
Bing Crosby Sings with Judy Garland, Mary Martin, Johnny Mercer (1948)
Bing Crosby Sings with Lionel Hampton, Eddie Heywood, Louis Jordan (1948)
Bing Crosby Sings the Song Hits from Broadway Shows (1948)
Cowboy Songs, Vol. Two (1948)
Auld Lang Syne (1948)
Bing Crosby Sings Cole Porter Songs (1949)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)
Bing Crosby Sings Songs by George Gershwin (1949)
South Pacific (1949)
Christmas Greetings (1949)
Ichabod – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)
Top o' the Morning / Emperor Waltz (1950)
Songs from Mr. Music (w/ Dorothy Kirsten and The Andrews Sisters) (1950)
Go West Young Man (w/ The Andrews Sisters) (1950)
Collectors' Classics, Vols. 1–8 (1951)
Way Back Home (1951)
Bing Crosby Sings the Song Hits from... (1951)
Bing and the Dixieland Bands (1951)
Yours Is My Heart Alone (1951)
Country Style (1951)
Beloved Hymns (1951)
Bing and Connee (w/ Connee Boswell) (1952)
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1952)
Themes and Songs from The Quiet Man (w/ Victor Young) (1952)
Selections from the Paramount Picture "Just for You" (w/ Jane Wyman and The Andrews Sisters) (1952)
Road to Bali (w/ Bob Hope and Peggy Lee) (1952)
Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris (1953)
Some Fine Old Chestnuts (1954)
Bing Sings the Hits (1954)
Selections from White Christmas (w/ Peggy Lee and Danny Kaye) (1954)
Bing: A Musical Autobiography (1954)
The Country Girl / Little Boy Lost (1955)
Merry Christmas (later version of 1945 78rpm album) (1955)
Shillelaghs and Shamrocks (1956)
Home on the Range (1956)
Blue Hawaii (1956)
High Tor (w/ Julie Andrews and Everett Sloane) (1956)
A Christmas Sing with Bing Around the World (1956)
Anything Goes (w/ Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor and Zizi Jeanmaire) (1956)
High Society (w/ Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, and Louis Armstrong) (1956)
Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around (1956)
Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (1956)
Bing with a Beat (1957)
A Christmas Story (1957)
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1957)
New Tricks (1957)
The Bible Story of Christmas (1957)
Never Be Afraid (1958)
Jack B. Nimble – A Mother Goose Fantasy (1958)
Fancy Meeting You Here ( w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1958)
Around the World with Bing! (1958)
Bing in Paris (1958)
That Christmas Feeling (1958)
In a Little Spanish Town (1958)
Bing’s Buddies and Beaus (1959)
Say One for Me (w/ Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner) (1959)
How the West Was Won (w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1960)
Join Bing and Sing Along (1960)
Bing & Satchmo (w/ Louis Armstrong) (1960)
Songs of Christmas (1960)
101 Gang Songs (1961)
El Señor Bing (1961)
My Golden Favorites (1961)
The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
Bing's Hollywood (set of 15 albums) (1962)
On the Happy Side (1962)
I Wish You a Merry Christmas (1962)
Holiday in Europe (1962)
Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre (1963)
Return to Paradise Islands (1964)
America, I Hear You Singing (w/ Frank Sinatra and Fred Waring) (1964)
Robin and the 7 Hoods (w/ Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.) (1964)
12 Songs of Christmas (w/ Frank Sinatra and Fred Waring) (1964)
Bing Crosby Sings the Great Country Hits (1965)
That Travelin' Two-Beat (w/ Rosemary Clooney) (1965)
The Summit (w/ Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.) (1966)
Bing Crosby's Treasury – The Songs I Love (1966)
Bing Crosby and The Columbus Boychoir Sing Family Christmas Favorites (w/ The Columbus Boychoir) (1967)
Thoroughly Modern Bing (1968)
Bing Crosby's Treasury – The Songs I Love (1968 version) (1968)
Hey Jude/Hey Bing! (1969)
Goldilocks (1970)
A Time to Be Jolly (1971)
Bing 'n' Basie (w/ Count Basie) (1972)
Rhythm on the Range (1972)
I’ll Sing You a Song of the Islands (1972)
A Southern Memoir (1975)
That's What Life Is All About (1975)
A Couple of Song and Dance Men (w/ Fred Astaire) (1975)
Tom Sawyer (1976)
At My Time of Life (1976)
Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium (1976)
Feels Good, Feels Right (1976)
Beautiful Memories (1977)
Bingo Viejo (1977)
Seasons (Bing Crosby's last studio album released during his lifetime) (1977)
A Little Bit of Irish (posthumous edition, recorded in 1966) (1993)
Bing Crosby: The Voice of Christmas (1998)
On the Sentimental Side (posthumous edition, recorded in 1962; Bing Crosby's latest studio album) (2010)