Singer. Perhaps best known as the wife of actor Don DeFore, she was a noted Big Band jazz vocalist of the late 1930s. Raised in Chicago, Illinois, she broke into show business with the "Henry Busse Band" in 1935 and remained with the group performing in the Midwest, in New York City, and at the famed Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, California until she joined Art Kassels and his "Kassels-in-the-Air" in 1939. With Kassels, she was heard in a number of major venues as well as on radio and had her two best known hits, "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Alexander the Swoose (Half Swan, Half Goose)". On Valentine's Day 1942 she married DeFore, whom she had met while he was making a movie in Chicago and retired to raise her eventual five children. Marion had a long career in real estate, was active in her church and community, and lived out her days in Southern California. At her death from the effects of advanced age an album of radio transcriptions entitled "Marion Holmes-Greatest Hits" was available on CD.
Singer. Perhaps best known as the wife of actor Don DeFore, she was a noted Big Band jazz vocalist of the late 1930s. Raised in Chicago, Illinois, she broke into show business with the "Henry Busse Band" in 1935 and remained with the group performing in the Midwest, in New York City, and at the famed Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, California until she joined Art Kassels and his "Kassels-in-the-Air" in 1939. With Kassels, she was heard in a number of major venues as well as on radio and had her two best known hits, "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Alexander the Swoose (Half Swan, Half Goose)". On Valentine's Day 1942 she married DeFore, whom she had met while he was making a movie in Chicago and retired to raise her eventual five children. Marion had a long career in real estate, was active in her church and community, and lived out her days in Southern California. At her death from the effects of advanced age an album of radio transcriptions entitled "Marion Holmes-Greatest Hits" was available on CD.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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