LINDEN, NJ — Helen Carr was a jazz singer who was active during the 1940s and 1950s. She recorded with famous jazz musicians such as Charlie Barnet, Stan Kenton, Buddy Morrow and Charles Mingus, to name just a few. Carr recorded two albums for the Bethlehem Records label in the 1950s, “Down in the Depths of the 90th Floor” and “Why Do I Love You,” which are still in print and available on compact disc or through streaming.
Because of her premature death at the age of 37, due to a battle with cancer, her success was cut short, and her life remained somewhat of a mystery. Carr died on Sept. 20, 1960, and her grave remained unmarked until Sept. 20 of this year, 63 years after her death.
Writer and jazz enthusiast David Nogar maintains a blog called The American Flaneur. Intrigued by Carr, he did some research on her and provided information on her life and career for his site in 2018. Nogar described Carr’s voice as “soft and breathy, almost sounding like a bluesy Marilyn Monroe.”
Carr’s niece, Jean Maddex, saw the blog and began her correspondence with Nogar.
On further research, Nogar discovered that Carr died at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City and was interred at Rosehill Cemetery in Linden. Nogar went to visit her gravesite and saw that she was buried in an unmarked grave.
“We need to fix this,” Nogar said. His plan was to get the grave marked by Sept. 20, 2020, which would have been the 60th anniversary of her death; however, the COVID-19 lockdown derailed these plans.
But working closely with Maddex, Nogar had a headstone designed and fabricated by the American Monument Company and it was placed just prior to Sept. 20 of this year, where a memorial service was given.
A small Christian service at Rosehill Cemetery was officiated by Pastor Arden C. Strasser, who currently serves at Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church in New York City, not far from where Carr died at Roosevelt Hospital. Nogar and Maddex were in attendance, along with Nogar’s wife, Pat, their friend, Tracy King and Maddex’s daughter, Lisa Noel.
“She [Carr] was very special, because of who she was,” said Maddex. “She started singing at two years old.”
Carr lived in California and Maddex lived in Washington state, so it was hard to keep in touch because, during that era, phone calls were expensive.
Although Carr had no connection to Linden, her being buried there has created a link. Nogar said people at that time were often buried in this cemetery if they had very little money. Carr was divorced and died alone, but her legacy has made her final resting place all the more poignant. And her grave now being marked with a tombstone with her name on it means she will never be alone or forgotten again.
Nogar started the memorial with opening remarks about Carr’s life and concluded by saying, “She needs to be remembered. It took a while to get to this day. We can pay our respects.”
“We are drawn to people in the arts,” said Strasser. “They bring beauty to the world. Helen’s gift was music. Can you imagine a life without music? She left behind for us all these songs. We know her not only as a musician, but as a person.”
Strasser continued to speak about the life of a musician during that time frame — a lot of traveling and no steady paycheck, a hard life for a jazz musician. He also spoke about how cancer treatment was limited back in 1960 – not what it is today.
Strasser said, “We don’t get to live in movies. We get to live in the real world. There’s hope and disappointments. The world knows her music. You know the real person.”
To learn more about Helen Carr’s life, visit David Nogar’s blog at www.theamericanflaneur.com/blog/in-search-of-helen-carr.
Photos by Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta