Jane Pickens

Jane Pickens Hoving (August 10, 1907 – February 21, 1992) was an American singer born in Macon, Georgia, whose career spanned Broadway, radio, and television over two decades before she became a prominent figure in philanthropic and society circles. She was one of four sisters — Grace, Jane, Helen (1910–1984), and Patti (1914–1995) — born to Mr. and Mrs. P.M. Pickens, whose father worked as a cotton broker and played piano while their mother sang. The girls began learning to harmonize as young as ages four, six, and eight under their parents' instruction, first performing for friends and later at churches and schools.

The family relocated to Park Avenue in Manhattan in 1932, and a test recording for Victor Records made such an impression on radio executives that the sisters were hired without an audition. Promoted as "Three Little Maids From Dixie," the Pickens Sisters — Grace, Jane, and Helen — achieved national recognition through their own radio program, concert tours, and recordings. Victor signed them as a counterpart to the Brunswick recording artists the Boswell Sisters, and the group recorded 25 sides for Victor between early 1932 and late 1934. Their records were noted for a novel quality distinct from the harder jazz style of the Boswell Sisters. The trio also appeared on Broadway in Thumbs Up and in the film Sitting Pretty. The group earned one million dollars over five years before dissolving when two sisters married and Grace, who had managed the act, also departed. Grace wed U.S. District Attorney John T. Cahill, while Patti married radio actor Bob Simmons.

Of the sisters, Pickens was the most dedicated to formal musical study. She attended the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Fontainebleau school in France, earned fellowships at the Juilliard School where she studied voice under Anna Eugénie Schoen-René, and spent two years studying with Polish coloratura soprano Marcella Sembrich. This rigorous training supported a solo career that ranged from musical comedy and opera to nightclub engagements.

Pickens' Broadway career extended from 1934 to 1975 and encompassed several productions. She appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 alongside Fanny Brice and Gypsy Rose Lee, and in 1940 played opposite Ed Wynn in Boys and Girls Together. In 1951 she starred in Music in the Air, and her other Broadway credits included Regina and A Gala Tribute to Joshua Logan. On radio, she hosted the American Melody Hour on CBS and the Jane Pickens Show on NBC. In 1954 she appeared in a 15-minute ABC television musical series, The Jane Pickens Show, which was succeeded in the spring of that year by The Martha Wright Show.

As her performing career wound down in the late 1950s, Pickens directed her energies toward charitable work, organizing hundreds of fundraising events on behalf of causes including the Salvation Army, heart disease research, and cerebral palsy — a condition that affected her own daughter. She also became a recognized presence at society events in New York City, Long Island, and Newport. In addition to her philanthropic activities, Pickens painted, with roses and flowers serving as her preferred subjects; she exhibited in galleries and sold dozens of works for charitable benefit. In 1972 she ran as the Republican-Conservative candidate challenging U.S. Representative Edward I. Koch in Manhattan's Silk Stocking district.

Pickens was married three times. Her first marriage, to Russell A. Clark, took place on June 6, 1928, when she was twenty years old, and ended in divorce. She subsequently married Wall Street broker William C. Langley, and after his death wed Walter Hoving, former owner of Tiffany & Company and Bonwit Teller. In 1974, a one-screen arthouse cinema in Newport — the only remaining movie theater in the city — was renamed the Jane Pickens Theater in her honor; Pickens and her sister Patti performed at the dedication ceremony. She maintained a home on Park Avenue in Manhattan as well as a residence in Newport, Rhode Island, where she died of heart failure on February 21, 1992, at the age of 84. She was survived by her daughter, Marcella Clark McCormack of Newport and Manhattan, and her sister Patti Shreve of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.