Partner Lynda Wells
Queer Places:
Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, USA
The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn (January 3, 1916 – October 21, 1995), and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" (February 16, 1918 – January 30, 2013).[1] The sisters have sold an estimated 80 million records.[2] Their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" can be considered an early example of jump blues. Other songs closely associated with the Andrews Sisters include their first major hit, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (Means That You're Grand)" (1937), "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel)" (1939), "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" (1940), "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)" (1942), and "Rum and Coca Cola" (1945), which helped introduce American audiences to calypso.
The Andrews Sisters' harmonies and songs are still influential today, and have been copied and recorded by entertainers such as Patti Page, Bette Midler, Christina Aguilera, Pentatonix, and others. The group was among the inaugural inductees to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame upon its opening in 1998.[3] Writing for Bloomberg, Mark Schoifet said the sisters became the most popular female vocal group of the first half of the 20th century.[4] They are still widely acclaimed today for their famous close harmonies. They were inducted into the Minnesota Rock/Country Hall of Fame in May 2006.
The sisters were born to Olga "Ollie" Sollie and Peter Andreas. Mr. Andreas (later 'Andrews') was Greek and his wife was of Norwegian ancestry raised in the Lutheran faith. The Sollie family disapproved of Olga's marriage, but the relationship was repaired once their first child, LaVerne, was born July 6, 1911. Their second daughter, Anglyn, died at eight months of age on March 16, 1914. Maxene arrived on January 3, 1916, and Patty was born February 16, 1918.
Patty, the youngest and the lead singer of the group, was 7 when the group was formed, and 12 when they won first prize at a talent contest at the local Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, where LaVerne played piano accompaniment for the silent film showings in exchange for free dancing lessons for herself and her sisters. Following the collapse of their father's Minneapolis restaurant, the sisters went on the road to support the family.[5] All three attended Franklin Junior High School and North High School, both in Minneapolis.[6]
Maxene Andrews married music publisher Lou Levy in 1941, separating in 1949. They adopted a girl and a boy, Aleda Ann and Peter.[31] Levy was the sisters' manager from 1937 to 1951. Later in life, according to her adopted daughter, with her manager, and longtime companion
Lynda Wells, Maxene entered a thirteen-year relationship with a woman and later spent many years as a life partner to Wells herself. "To me, being gay was not a central focus of Maxene's life at all," Wells told radio station The Current (KCMP) in a 2019 interview.[32] "Her art was. Her singing was." But Wells says that their status as companions, and Maxene's health issues as she got older, led Maxene to adopt her as a daughter. "There was no such thing as being married at that time," she said. "During her lifetime, there was no such thing that existed for us."[32]
A story about the Andrews Sisters appeared in the July 21, 1992, issue of
Globe, a supermarket tabloid. The headline read: "SOUNDS OF SILENCE: QUESTION:
Why haven't the boogie-woogie Andrews Sisters spoken for over 20 years?
ANSWER: Maxene's gay & Patty's furious!" With quotes from an unnamed "pal" of
the sisters, the story claimed that Patty disapproved of Maxene's "lesbian"
relationship with her manager Lynda Wells and that—as well as disagreements
about money during Over Herd-was the reason for their long estrangement.
According to the story "Maxene has a live-in lesbian lover—and straitlaced
Patty despises her sister's gay lifestyle." An "insider" was quoted as saying:
"Patty's always worried what people would think if they knew Maxene had a
female lover." The story, which is filled with inaccurate information,
concluded with statements from Maxene, including: "I tried to patch things up
years ago, only to have Patty hang up on me ... In fact, one time I called her
and she told me that if I ever called again, she'd sue me! That's the last
time I tried to fix things between us."
Shortly after her Off-Broadway debut in New York City in a show called Swingtime Canteen, Maxene suffered another heart attack and died at Cape Cod Hospital on October 21, 1995, making Patty the last surviving Andrews Sister. Not long before she died, Maxene told music historian William Ruhlmann,
I have nothing to regret. We got on the carousel and we each got the ring and I was satisfied with that. There's nothing I would do to change things if I could...Yes, I would. I wish I had the ability and the power to bridge the gap between my relationship with my sister, Patty.[29]
Upon hearing the news of her sister's death, Patty became distraught. Several days later, Patty's husband Wally fell down a flight of stairs and broke both wrists. Patty did not attend her sister's memorial services in New York City, nor in California.[citation needed] Bob Hope said of Maxene's passing, "She was more than part of The Andrews Sisters, much more than a singer. She was a warm and wonderful lady who shared her talent and wisdom with others."[29]
In a will dated August 7,1990, Maxene left all of her "tangible personal
property" to I.ynda Wells. The residue of her estate was given to the Maxene
Anglyn Andrews Trust, the trustors of which were Maxene and Lynda Wells. Thus,
the entire estate went to Lynda Wells in trust. A disinheritance clause in the
will read: I have intentionally made no provision in this Will for my sister,
PATRICIA MARIE ANDREWS WESCHLER, my brother-in-law, MELVIN WALTER WESCHLER, or
any person not specifically named, whether claiming to be an heir of mine or
not. I have intentionally omitted to provide herein for any of my other heirs
living at the date of my death. According to Gladys Leichter, Maxene's adopted
children. Aleda and Peter, had received insurance policies from Maxene
earlier. They were estranged from Maxene at her death, both apparently having
felt abandonment during their childhood when so much of their mother's time
was consumed by her career.
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