Acclaimed singer and TV correspondent Joanna Simon dies at 85

Joanna Simon, an acclaimed mezzo-soprano singer, Emmy-winning television correspondent, and one of three singing Simon sisters, including pop star Carly, has died at the age of 85.

Simon, the eldest of four children, died Wednesday, just one day before his sister. Lucy According to Lucy’s daughter, Julie Simon, passed away.their brother peterthe photographer died in 2018 at the age of 71. All three had cancer.

“For the last two days I have been by my mother and aunt Joanna watching them go to the afterlife. I really don’t understand,” Julie wrote on Facebook.

Joanna Simon, who died of thyroid cancer, rose to fame as an opera and concert performer in the 1960s. She was a frequent guest on television talk shows. After she retired from singing, she became the arts correspondent for her PBS “McNeil Lehrer News Hour.” Emmy In 1991, he was awarded for his report on mental illness and creativity.

Simon was married to novelist and journalist Gerald Walker from 1976 until his death in 2004. She was Walter’s Cronkite companion from 2005 until her death in 2009.

In 1962, he made his professional debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. New York city ​​opera. That same year, she won the Marian Anderson Award for Promising Young Singers. Simon covered a variety of materials. As a performer in her concerts, she leaned towards classical and contemporary songs of the time.

The brothers were born to publishing giant Richard Simon and his wife Andrea. Carly and Lucy once performed as The Sisters of Simon and opened for other acts at the Folk Club in Greenwich Village.