px|image_size caption death_date death_place birth_name birth_place years_active label background birth_date genre image article_title name
260px jo radio album '' magazine , summer 1948 stafford pictured on the back cover of '' 16 july 2008 century city , los angeles , california , u.s. jo elizabeth stafford coalinga , california , u.s. 1930s 1944 -- 1982 -lrb- solo singer -rrb- -- 1944 -lrb- part of vocal groups -rrb- capitol columbia dot corinthian solo_singer 12 november 1917 traditional pop file : jo stafford color photo 1948.jpg jo stafford
 jo stafford
jo stafford

jo elizabeth stafford -lrb- november 12 , 1917july 16 , 2008 -rrb- was an american traditional pop music singer and occasional actress , whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s .
admired for the purity of her voice , she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music , and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist .
her 1952 song `` you belong to me '' topped the charts in the united states and united kingdom , the record becoming the first by a female artist to reach number one on the u.k. singles chart .
born in coalinga , california , stafford made her first musical appearance at age twelve .
while still at high school she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named the stafford sisters , who enjoyed moderate success on radio and in film .
in 1938 , while the sisters were part of the cast of twentieth century fox 's production of `` alexander 's ragtime band '' , stafford met the future members of the pied pipers and became the group 's lead singer .
bandleader tommy dorsey hired them in 1939 to perform back-up vocals for his orchestra .
in addition to her recordings with the pied pipers , stafford featured in solo performances for dorsey .
after leaving the group in 1944 , she recorded a series of pop standards for capitol records and columbia records .
many of her recordings were backed by the orchestra of paul weston .
she also performed duets with gordon macrae and frankie laine .
her work with the united service organizations -lrb- uso -rrb- giving concerts for soldiers during world war ii earned her the nickname `` g.i. jo '' .
starting in 1945 , stafford was a regular host of the national broadcasting company -lrb- nbc -rrb- radio series `` the chesterfield supper club '' and later appeared in television specialsincluding two series called `` the jo stafford show '' , in 1954 in the u.s. and in 1961 in the u.k. stafford married twice : first in 1937 to musician john huddleston -lrb- the couple divorced in 1943 -rrb- ; then in 1952 to paul weston , with whom she had two children .
she and weston developed a comedy routine in which they assumed the identity of an incompetent lounge act named jonathan and darlene edwards , parodying well-known songs .
the act proved popular at parties and among the wider public when the couple released an album as the edwardses in 1957 .
in 1961 , the album `` jonathan and darlene edwards in paris '' won stafford her only grammy award for best comedy album , and was the first commercially successful parody album .
stafford largely retired as a performer in the mid-1960s , but continued in the music business .
she enjoyed a brief resurgence in popularity in the late 1970s when she recorded a cover of the bee gees hit , `` stayin ' alive '' as darlene edwards .
in the 1990s , she began re-releasing some of her material through corinthian records , a label founded by weston .
she died in 2008 in century city , los angeles , and is interred with weston at holy cross cemetery , culver city .
her work in radio , television and music is recognized by three stars on the hollywood walk of fame .
