Ann Richards

Ann Richards (née Margaret Ann Borden, October 1, 1935 – April 1, 1982) was an American pop and jazz singer. She was the second wife of bandleader Stan Kenton. She had a short career in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Early life, musical education and influences Ann Richards was born Margaret Ann Borden on October 1, 1935, in San Diego, California, but raised to the north in Albany, California. Her father William left the family after Ann's mother had an affair and child with one of her students. By 1940, her mother Bernice was divorced and Ann's mother's maiden name of Richards was adopted. Her mother taught school and also wanted her daughter to become a teacher. Richards' mother gave Ann piano lessons and discovered Ann could sing at the age of 15. In nearby Oakland, Richards babysat for Judy Davis, who was the later vocal coach of Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra. She tended after Davis's children in exchange for vocal lessons. Unbeknownst to her mother, Richards would go out late at night to sing in clubs, getting experience in the bay area as a jazz and pop singer. Tour with Charlie Barnet and Hollywood Early in 1954, Richards moved into a young women's residence in San Francisco and studied for three months at San Francisco State University to be a teacher. That same year, band leader Charlie Barnet heard Richards at the El Patio Ballroom in San Francisco and hired her for a five-month tour as his band's primary female singer. Shortly after the tour with Barnett, she moved to Hollywood. On Thanksgiving of 1954, Richards sang at the La Madelon restaurant on the Sunset Strip. Notable songwriters Joe Greene and Eddie Beal were in attendance that evening and were so impressed with Richards' performance that they booked her to record a demo. Shortly after, Greene and Beal played the finished demo for Stan Kenton, with whom they'd had numerous successful collaborations, as well as for Pete Rugolo. Kenton contacted Richards and hired her as his new singer the day they met in his office on Robertson Blvd. Ann Richards recalled, "He (Stan) asked me one question: What do you want to do with your career? I said, 'Mr.