Her real name was Frances "Fanny" Rose Shore and she was born in Winchester, TN. Stricken with polio at 18 months of age, she recovered after receiving the Sister Kenny treatment. She became a cheerleader at Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville, and went on to graduate from Vanderbilt University in 1938, where she majored in Sociology. She took voice and acting lessons on the side and sang on radio station WSM in Nashville. In 1938 she left Tennessee for New York City and began singing on radio station WNCW in New York. Her first recordings were with bandleader Xavier Cugat and later changed her named to Dinah after success with her song of the same name. She received numerous Emmy Awards for television specials and productions and appeared in many films. She was married to actor George Montgomery and they had one daughter and adopted a son.
She had a long love affair with Burt Reynolds who was 20 years younger than her. She earned the USO Medallion Award as the first entertainer to visit GIs on the front lines of WWII. The first female star with her own prime-time TV variety show. Took the professional name Dinah after the title of a favorite song. A childhood bout with polio left her with a deformed leg. For the rest of her life, she wore either long dresses or slacks to cover this up. Host of NBC Radio's "Birdseye Open House" (1943-1946). Member of alpha epsilon phi sorority She has three grandchildren from Melissa: Jennefer, Adam, and Alexander. Her ex-husband, George Montgomery, and her two children were with her when she died. Dinah gave birth to daughter Melissa Ann (Melissa Montgomery, now known as Melissa Montgomery-Hime) in January, 1948. She later adopted her son John "Jody" David Montgomery. Although she was not an original member of the cast of Call Me Madam, she sang all the Ethel Merman songs on the original cast recording when Decca Records refused to release Ms. Merman from her contract to record the soundtrack for RCA. Dinah Shore Drive is named for her. It spans the cities of Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City (near Palm Springs) California. Half of her ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cathedral City (near Palm Springs), California. The other half are interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California. Per 1920/1930 census records, both of her parents were Russian-born Jews. Her father was a prosperous dry goods merchant in Tennessee. Dinah Shore Boulevard is named in her honor in her hometown of Winchester, Tennessee. Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1994.