Gisele MacKenzie

Gisèle MacKenzie (born Gisèle Marie Louise Marguerite LaFlèche; January 10, 1927 – September 5, 2003) was a Canadian-American singer, actress, and commercial spokesperson, best known for her performances on the US television program Your Hit Parade.

She was born Gisèle Marie Louise Marguerite LaFlèche in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1927. She was the daughter of a Winnipeg doctor. Her mother was a pianist and concert singer who toured Canada as Marietta Monseau. After MacKenzie began picking out tunes on a piano when she was 3 years old, Monseau began coaching her. At age 7, MacKenzie began serious study of playing the violin, her father's favorite instrument. MacKenzie spent her childhood in Manitoba where she studied violin and attended the Sacred Heart School as a child. Her first public recital occurred at a hotel in Winnipeg when she was 12 years old. Beginning when she was 14, she specialized in violin at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario. Her six years there included her receiving a scholarship in the graduate school.

She had at least two Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio programs, Meet Gisèle, where she played hostess to Jack Benny, Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Fred Astaire, and James Stewart; and Gisele and Mr. Cable.

She took on the stage name MacKenzie and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1951 to replace The Andrews Sisters on CBS Radio's daily program, Club Fifteen, starring Bob Crosby, where she alternated as regular vocalist with Jo Stafford. She became a naturalized US citizen in 1955.

MacKenzie recorded albums and singles on various record labels, most notably Capitol and RCA, Everest, Mercury, Liberty Sunset, and Cricket Playhour (Pickwick). In 1953 she reached No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart, with her rendition of "Seven Lonely Days".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.