During her early-'40s tenure with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Connie Haines frequently shared the spotlight with Frank Sinatra and supplied vocals for several of the band’s chart successes; she also pursued independent recording work throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Born Yvonne Marie Antoinette Ja Mais in Savannah in 1922, she acquired vocal technique at a young age because her mother taught both voice and dance. Following her parents’ divorce she relocated to Jacksonville, where she began broadcasting on radio before turning ten. In 1931 she performed on NBC as Baby Yvonne Marie, the Little Princess of the Air; one year later she appeared with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra, and in 1934 she won a singing competition on The Fred Allen Show.
Her initial big-band agreement came with Howard Lally, yet by sixteen she had joined Harry James’s ensemble—her first professional engagement alongside Frank Sinatra. When financial strain compelled James to dismiss first Sinatra and subsequently Haines, both vocalists secured positions with Tommy Dorsey. Starting in 1940, the combination of Haines, Sinatra, and the later-arriving Pied Pipers elevated Dorsey’s group to one of the era’s most potent pop aggregations; Haines contributed to such successes as “Two Dreams Met,” “Oh, Look at Me Now,” “Kiss the Boys Goodbye,” and “What Is This Thing Called Love?”
After departing Dorsey she performed with the Bob Crosby Orchestra in 1941. Over the ensuing decades she issued singles and LPs as a solo artist on Coral, Capitol, Mercury, Columbia, and Dot. She maintained an active performance schedule into the 1990s and died in 2008 from the neuromuscular condition myasthenia gravis.
