McCracken was one of the real-life counterparts of Holly Golightly in Truman Capote's popular novella "Breakfast at Tiffany's". While playing in "Bloomer Girl" in October 1944, she received a War Department telegram telling her of the death of her brother, Buddy McCracken, a month earlier during particularly vicious combat on the Pacific island of Peleliu. She reacted violently when she heard the news, tearing up her dressing room. McCracken told Capote of the incident, and he used it in the novella. In the book, Holly Golightly has a violent outburst in reaction to her brother's death during Army service overseas. Golightly is shown singing songs from "Oklahoma!", accompanying herself on a guitar, and owning "The Baseball Guide", which was edited by McCracken's uncle James Isaminger.