Double tragedy for Carly
SINGER Carly Simon lost her older two sisters to cancer last week, with the siblings dying just one day apart.
Opera singer Joanna Simon, 85, died of thyroid cancer on Wednesday, while Broadway composer Lucy succumbed to breast cancer on Thursday at the age of 82.
The You’re So Vain star lost her brother Peter, 71, a photographer, to cardiac arrest in 2018 while he was battling lung cancer. The siblings were the children of publisher Richard Simon and his wife Andrea.
Oscar and Grammy-winning Carly, 75, who has never revealed who You’re So Vain is about, declined to comment last night but was said to be in ‘deep mourning’ by friends.
Joanna, a mezzo-soprano, performed with the New York Opera and with the Vienna Philharmonic. Carly once described her voice as ‘magical, far better than mine’.
Lucy rose to fame when she joined Carly as a member of the folk music duo The Simon Sisters, performing alongside her from 1963 to 1969, when Carly embarked on a solo career.
She later launched a Broadway career, writing the music for musicals The Secret Garden (1991) and Doctor Zhivago (2011). She credited Carly with inspiring her work, saying: ‘So much of what I love about my work on Doctor Zhivago comes from my time singing with Carly, finding the harmonies in duets and trios.’
Carly won the Best Song Oscar for Let The River Run, from the 1988 film Working Girl.