Jessica Valentina Dragonette (February 14, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a singer who became popular on American radio and was active in the World War II effort. Early life Born in Calcutta, India, or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Jessica Valentina Dragonetti, the youngest of three children of Italian-born parents, Luigi (Louis) and Rachele (née Baronio) Dragonetti, the Social Security Death Index cites Dragonette's year of birth as 1900, as does the 1900 United States census (June 1900) which gives the age of "Jessie Dragonet" as 4 months. By Christmas 1909, she was orphaned and raised in a Catholic convent school, and she graduated from Catholic Girls' High School in Philadelphia in 1919. Dragonette was a 1923 graduate of Mt. St. Mary's College. New York poet Ree Dragonette was her cousin. Dragonette's musical debut occurred at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. During her college years, she studied with singing coach Estelle Liebling in New York City. Liebling steered her away from a career as a concert performer toward work on radio. Career In 1924, Dragonette provided an angel's off-screen voice in Max Reinhardt's production of The Miracle, and in the summer of 1924, she was a member of Andra Sherri's Revue, which was part of a midsummer festival at the Lyric Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana. She began singing on radio as early as December 4, 1924, when she performed on WGBS in New York City. In 1925, Dragonette became a member of the cast of the third edition of The Earl Carroll Vanities. Another Broadway production in which Dragonette appeared was Grand Street Follies (1926). She and contralto Celia Branz were known as the Junior Prima Donnas in that production. Also in 1925, that duo sang on WLIT radio in Philadelphia and headlined the stage show that accompanied a film at the Stanley Theater, also in Philadelphia. Dragonette continued performing on radio as a member of the cast of Roxy and His Gang when the program resumed weekly broadcasts on October 30, 1925, over WEAF in New York City and WEEI in Boston. In 1926, she began performing on WEAF in the Musical Comedy Hour, and in 1927 she started singing in operettas there as "Vivian, 'The Coca-Cola Girl'" on The Coca-Cola Hour, which debuted in 1927 as Coca-Cola's first venture into radio advertising. During her 22-year radio career she helped to popularize operettas and semi-classical music. An admiring press