About
Doris Day was born in the Cincinnati, Ohio, neighborhood of Evanston to Alma Sophia Welz (a housewife) and Wilhelm (later William) Kappelhoff (a music teacher). All of her grandparents were German immigrants. Her parents’ marriage failed due to her father’s reported infidelity. Although the family was Roman Catholic, her parents divorced. After her second marriage, Day herself would become a Christian Scientist. Day was married four times.
The youngest of three children, she had two brothers: Richard, who died before she was born, and Paul, a few years older. She was named after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother admired.
Day developed an early interest in dance, and in the mid-1930s formed a dance duo that performed locally in Cincinnati. A car accident on October 13, 1937 damaged her legs and curtailed her prospects as a professional dancer. While recovering, Day took singing lessons, and at 17 she began performing locally.
It was while working for local bandleader Barney Rapp in 1939 or 1940 that she adopted the stage name “Day” as an alternative to “Kappelhoff,” at his suggestion. Rapp felt her surname was too long for marquees. The first song she had performed for him was Day After Day, and her stage name was taken from that. After working with Rapp, Day worked with a number of other bandleaders including Jimmy James, Bob Crosby, and Les Brown. It was while working with Brown that Day scored her first hit recording, “Sentimental Journey”, which was released in early 1945. It soon became an anthem of the desire of World War II demobilizing troops to return home. This song is still associated with Day, and was rerecorded by her on several occasions, as well as being included in her 1971 television special.