Dusty road to success
QUESTION In 1963, vocal trio The Springfields split up. We know about Dusty, but what happened to the other two?
THE Springfields were a pop/folk trio from the early Sixties that featured the talents of Mary O’Brien and her older brother Dion, who adopted the stage names Dusty and Tom Springfield.
She had discovered her talent for singing as a schoolgirl at St Anne’s Convent in West London and became a member of the Lana Sisters.
Tom formed a folk duo with his friend Tim Feild. He later invited his sister to join the group.
The group were successful, with five Top 40 hits and two Top Tens — Islands Of Dreams in 1962 and Say I Won’t Be There in 1963. They also had a surprise U.S. hit when Silver Threads And Silver Needles reached Number 20 in the Billboard charts in 1962.
Late in 1962, Feild left the group after his wife developed a serious medical condition. Mike Hurst ( aka Mike Longhurst-Pickworth) replaced him in The Springfields in early 1963.
Thanks to the group’s success in the U.S., they recorded what was to be their final album, Folk Songs From The Hills, in Nashville, where Dusty discovered the rhythm and blues and soul music that would become her passion.
After the band broke up, Tom Springfield became a record producer and songwriter for The Seekers.
He wrote many of their major hits, including I’ll Never Find Another You, A World Of Our Own and the million-selling The Carnival Is Over.
With Clive Westlake, he co-wrote Frank Ifield’s Summer Is Over in 1964 and his sister Dusty’s hit, Losing You.
After a 1970 duet with Dusty, Morning Please Don’t Come, Tom retired from the music industry.
Dusty went on to enjoy a successful solo career, with hits including You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me and Son Of A Preacher Man. She died from cancer in 1999 and her brother scattered some of her ashes at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.
Justin Rowe, Rugby, Warks.
QUESTION What happened to the top golfer Ronan Rafferty?
BURLY Irishman Ronan Rafferty ruled the golfing roost in 1989 with a series of famous victories, but never realised his full potential owing to injuries.
Born in Newry, Northern Ireland, in 1964, he began winning tournaments as a teenager. He beat Mark Calcavecchia in the 1989 Belfry Ryder Cup, where Europe retained the cup having drawn the tournament 14:14; he beat Nick Faldo in the Volvo Masters and clinched first place over Jose Maria Olazabal in the European Order of Merit.
However, recurring injuries meant he missed numerous tournaments. After two bones fused in his hand, he barely played in the late Nineties.
Rafferty was a charismatic golf commentator on Setanta Sports. Today, he runs corporate golf days and is an ambassador for various courses.
He has played eight events on the senior tour this year, making the cut seven times, the most recent being the Scottish Senior Open, where he was tied 51st on 12 over par for the tournament.
Jon Stevens, Cardiff.
QUESTION Were any midwest or western states involved in the U.S. Civil War?
IN 1861, there were 34 states within the U.S., of which seven broke away originally to form the Confederacy. The majority lay between the Atlantic and the banks of the Missouri and Mississippi. However, three Union states lay to the west of that line: Kansas, California and Oregon. There was one Confederate state, Texas, to the West.
Though the major reason for the split was the issue of slavery, there were other points, such as the rights of states to make their own decisions.
The border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri later joined the Confederacy, leaving 23 states in the Union.
Following what we would call a referendum, Virginia split in two, forming West Virginia in 1863, which joined the Union.
The main concern of Texas was a possible invasion by Mexico, but it did provide troops for the Confederate Army. It was a supply route, a source for food and horses and an export route for cotton, avoiding eastern ports blockaded by the Union — as were Texan ports later in the war.
California provided volunteer units to replace Federal troops withdrawn from Oregon to fight in the East and also protected New Mexico from invasion by Mexico and Confederate incursions from Texas. It was also the main source of gold for the Union treasury.
Supporters of slavery who crossed the border from Union states to join the Confederate Army included 1,000 men from Kansas, which was isolated from the Union by the Confederate state of Missouri.
It was the last state to join the Union before the 1861 split and provided 20,000 soldiers for the Union army, 4,000 more than the conscription quota allocated by the Union government.
Kansas was the most westerly state before the start of the Washington, Dakota, Nevada, Utah, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and Indian territories — areas where people had settled, but which were not yet states.
Settlers in the territories weren’t subject to conscription imposed by the Union or Confederate states as, legally, they weren’t part of either. They were free to join the army of whichever side they favoured or to stay neutral.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
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