The Lennon Sisters were a singing group of actual sisters who appeared on The Lawrence Welk Show in its early days. Their names were Peggy, Kathy, Janet, and DeeDee. They were four girls in a family of twelve children: seven sisters and five brothers. Mary Frances Lennon, the youngest of these children, crossed to the other side as an infant in 1954. Their parents, who married in 1939, were William Herbert Lennon (a milkman and later golf course worker) and Isabelle (Denning) Lennon (a homemaker).
The sisters’ mom, Isabelle, was the daughter of Danforth Denning and Reina Ysabella Alvarez. Isabelle’s ancestral background included Mexican, Spanish, German, and Irish.
During their childhood, the Lennon sisters lived with their parents, grandma, and siblings in a two-bedroom house in Venice, California. The family were devout Roman Catholics and attended the local Church of St. Mark. Most (and perhaps all) of the children attended Catholic school when they were young. This Roman Catholic faith played an important part in the singing career of the Lennon Sisters. It influenced their lives, the direction they took in their career, and even some of the songs they sang. In fact, many of their songs were outright hymns or of a religious nature.
The Lennon Sisters debuted on The Lawrence Welk Show (their first time performing on TV) on Christmas Eve in 1955. They obtained this wonderful break in their career because one of the sisters went to high school with Lawrence Welk’s son, Larry. Larry brought the sisters over to his house to sing for his dad one day, and Lawrence was so impressed with them that he booked them for that week’s episode of The Lawrence Welk Show. The girls stayed with the show until 1968, when they left it to pursue their own independent careers.
The group was a quartet, except for a brief stint as a trio from 1960 to 1964 when DeeDee left after getting married. She returned to the group in 1964 and made a handful of appearances with them on the show during the years she was technically away from the group.
The girls’ father had performed in his own barbershop quartet during the Big Band era of music in the 1930s and 1940s, and he taught the art of barbershop to Peggy. Peggy taught it to Janet, Kathy, and DeeDee. In the group, Peggy sang the high harmony, Kathy sang the low harmony, Janet sang the middle harmony, and DeeDee sang the lead harmony. They took their musical influences from Patti Page, Connie Francis, The Mills Brothers, and The Andrews Sisters, all of whom the girls idolized, and worked hard to create a sound similar to these famous performers.
In addition to performing on The Lawrence Welk Show, the Lennon Sisters recorded several singles and albums for Dot Records. Their first single, titled “Tonight You Belong to Me,” charted at Number Fifteen on the Billboard charts in the US in 1956. A 1961 single of theirs titled “Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)” charted at Number One in Japan and was their only Number One single (the same song went to Number Fifty-Six on the Billboard charts in the United States).
At the height of their fame, several promotional items bearing the images of the sisters were produced to be sold at retail stores, such as story books, paper dolls, and coloring books.
As the girls got older and created families of their own, they needed extra money for their young households. They were only receiving Union scale pay on The Lawrence Welk Show. Lawrence agreed to the girls only appearing on the show once a month in 1967, so they could pursue other earning opportunities. Eventually, though, Lawrence decided that this new schedule of the sisters’ appearances did not work for him. In February of 1968, he let them go from the show. The final song of their final performance on the show was the tune “Sweet and Low.”
After leaving The Lawrence Welk Show, the sisters were given their own variety show; Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters Hour. The show took an unexpected two-week hiatus after filming only five episodes, as the girls’ father, William Lennon, was murdered by a stalker fan of Peggy’s in the parking lot of the golf course where he worked as an instructor. William had managed the girls’ career until shortly before he was killed, when he retired to be a golf instructor. He had been at every performance they made on The Lawrence Welk Show, and his murder hit them hard.
After he was shot, the girls discovered an unopened letter at his house. Inside the envelope was a cut-out picture of their dad with a gun pointing at his head and the words “High Noon,” which was the time he was shot. The murderer was a former Air Force officer who had previously been a patient at a mental hospital and was declared to be “dangerously insane.” He believed that he was married to Peggy and that her dad was the only thing standing between them and being together, so he had to be eliminated. He killed himself two months after the murder, using the same weapon he’d used to kill William Lennon. Due to their bereavement, the sisters’ show only lasted for a season and a half.
After ending their own show, the girls performed as regulars on The Andy Williams Show in the 1970s. They also toured with Andy with much success for a decade. In addition to this, they appeared on game shows, as well as performed at the Welk Theater from 1982 (at Lawrence’s request) to 1992, when Lawrence crossed to the other side. They moved their families from Los Angeles to Branson for this opportunity. After Lawrence crossed, the sisters performed as the headliners at the Welk Champagne Theater in Branson from 1994 to 2012.
Peggy decided to retire from singing in 1999. After this, the ladies’ younger sister Mimi took Peggy’s place in the group. DeeDee left the group for the second time in 2001. After that, the group performed as a trio for the remainder of its time in Branson. The Lennon Sisters tour the country today as a trio, appearing annually at The Andy Williams Moon River Theatre in Branson, where they perform a Christmas show. They have performed for twenty consecutive years in Branson, Missouri.