Stafford 's first public singing appearance was in Long Beach , where the family lived when she was twelve . She sang " Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms " , a Stafford family sentimental favorite . Her second was far more dramatic . As a student at Long Beach Polytechnic High School with the lead in the school musical , she was rehearsing on stage when the 1933 Long Beach earthquake destroyed part of the school . With her mother 's encouragement , Stafford originally planned to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child , taking private lessons from Foster Rucker , an announcer on California radio station KNX . Because of the Great Depression , she abandoned that idea and joined her older sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group The Stafford Sisters . The two older Staffords were already part of a trio with an unrelated third member when the act got a big booking at Long Beach 's West Coast Theater . Pauline was too ill to perform , and Jo was drafted in to take her place so they could keep the engagement . She asked her glee club teacher for a week 's absence from school , saying her mother needed her at home , and this was granted . The performance was a success , and Jo became a permanent member of the group
1933 Long Beach earthquake
1933 Long Beach earthquake
Jo Stafford