PASS OBITS: ANNETTE HANSHAW

One of the greatest of the early female torch singers was Annette Hanshaw. She retired in the late 1930s, and is largely forgotten today but here is her obituary as it appeared in the NY Times of March 19,1985...

Annette Hanshaw, one of the most prolific recording singers in the late 1920's and early 30's, died of cancer on Wednesday at New York Hospital after a long illness. She was 74 years old and lived in Manhattan.

Between 1926 and 1934, Miss Hanshaw made more than 200 records under her own name and many more as a vocalist with the Original Memphis Five, Willard Robison's Deep River Orchestra, Sam Lanin's Orchestra and Lou Gold's Orchestra, often using the names Gay Ellis, Dot Dare and Patsy Young. Her accompanists included the jazz musicians Jack Teagarden, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, James P. Johnson, Red Nichols, Miff Mole and Charlie Spivak.

Miss Hanshaw, who was born in New York on Oct. 18, 1910, was 15 when she was heard singing at a party by Waldemar Rose, an executive of Pathe-Actuellel Records. He signed her to a recording contract and married her when she was 19. In addition to recording, she had her own show on radio and sang with the Cliquot Club Eskimos and with Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra on the ''Camel Caravan.''

Miss Hanshaw retired from show business when she was 24. Mr. Rose died in 1954, and in 1970 she married Herbert Kurtin.

She is survived by her husband and two brothers, George Hanshaw of White Plains and Frank Hanshaw of Atlanta...

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