Cliff Portwood
October 17, 1937 – January 10, 2012
Cliff Portwood was a 14-year veteran of English football before launching a career as a singer. After retiring from the game and moving to South Africa where he coached, Portwood began competing in radio station contests. During the early ’70s, he won a recording contract in Australia, so he moved to Melbourne. Over the next several years, he earned five gold records and became a familiar face on such television Australian programs as The Penthouse. Throughout his singing career, Portwood performed with the likes of Keith Moon, Dick Emory, and Frankie Vaughan. In the early ’80s, he moved back to England where in 1982, he recorded “Up There O’ England,” a World Cup song, with members of the 1966 FIFA World Cup team. It was re-released for the 2010 games. In later years, Portwood spent winters in Florida where here found success as a cabaret singer. Cliff Portwood died of lung disease on January 10, 2012. He was 74.
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Known as Israel’s “Songstress of the Wars,” Yafa Yarkoni began to find popularity during the late ’40s. She earned her nickname thanks to her frequent performances for Israeli troops during wartime. During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Yarkoni joined an Israel Defense Forces singing group with whom she sang “Bab el-Wad,” a song which has become a standard and is sung each year on Israel’s Memorial Day. Yarkoni’s list of fan favorites also includes “Road To Jerusalem” and “Don’t Say Goodbye, Say I’ll See You.” She suffered from Alzheimer’s Diseases in later years and made her last television appearance in 2007. Yafa Yarkoni was 86 when she passed away on January 1, 2012.
Kaye Stevens was a popular entertainer who initially found her audience during the 1960s. Stevens’ big break came one night when Debbie Reynolds, who was headlining the Riviera in Las Vegas, fell ill. Stevens was called in at the last-minute, and club bookers quickly took notice. Before she knew it, Stevens was playing up and down the Las Vegas Strip and at clubs in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and beyond. She even secured an opening slot on dates with the Rat Pack, 
Merv Conn was a Washington DC area accordionist and singer who entertained audiences big and small for several decades. Conn was still in his teens when he first learned to play the accordion, and in a very short time, he was playing parties and on local radio stations. During the mid ’40s, he opened an accordion school, which at its peak, employed five teachers and taught as many as 300 students a week. In 1964, he became the official live musician of the Washington Senators professional baseball team, entertaining crowds over the PA system between innings. Due to his proximity to the U.S. Capital, Conn often performed at embassy events and even played private shows for Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and Harry S. Truman. Over the years, his repertoire swelled to over 1000 songs. Merv Conn was 91 when he died of complications of prostate cancer on December 20, 2011.
Violetta Villas was a Polish soprano singer who, instead of taking the obvious route of opera, chose a career in pop music. Known as much for her magnificent head of blond curls as her four octave voice, Villas starred in six films and recorded nearly 300 songs in ten different languages. In 1966, Villas was hired by the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas to perform in their Casino de Paris. Her run lasted until 1971, and along the way she was joined on stage by the likes of