once fooled a diplomat into thinking Russian was her native tongue. Never one to use printed music, it’s estimated she memorized over 75 operas and more than 500 songs. In the mid-1950s, David Gottlieb, the president of leading pinball game manufacturer Gottlieb, hired Dragonette to appear at coin-operated game machine events promoting a pinball game called Dragonette. However, the game had nothing to do with her. It was spoof of a leading TV show of the period, Dragnet. Marriage On June 28, 1947, she married Nicholas Meredith Turner at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York; both were devout Roman Catholics. The ceremony was performed by Cardinal Francis Spellman. The union, Dragonette's only marriage, was childless but happy, and lasted until her death. Death Dragonette died in New York Hospital on March 18, 1980, from a heart attack. Filmography Book Dragonette's autobiography, Faith Is a Song, was published in 1951 by David McKay Company. She was assisted by another McKay author, ghostwriter Arthur J. Burks. Honors Pro Pontifice et Ecclesia Cross, Pope Pius XII Voted best female singer of the country 1942 and 1943 Mural The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum holds "The World of Radio, 1934", a mural that features Dragonette "at the center of the 'story of radio's progress'". More than eight feet high and 16 feet wide, the mural shows Dragonette on top of a globe in a cityscape, surrounded by images that represent people and accomplishments related to the advancement of radio. Commissioned by Dragonette's sister, Nadea Dragonette Loftus, and completed in 1934 by Arthur Gordon Smith, the mural was displayed in the singer's apartment. References External links The Jessica Dragonette papers in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (Dragonette's personal archive) Finding aid to Jessica Dragonette papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Faith is a Song, Jessica Dragonette's autobiography 1900 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American memoirists American radio personalities American voice actresses American Roman Catholics American writers of Italian descent American sopranos Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (Hawthorne, New York) Georgian Court University alumni Singers from New York City 20th-century American singers Place of birth missing 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American women singers American women memoirists