Oldest of the singing DeCastro Sisters dies at 82

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 | 8:25 a.m.

Peggy DeCastro, the oldest member and lead singer of the DeCastro Sisters, died Saturday at her Las Vegas home following a lengthy illness. She was 82.

Nicknamed the "Cuban Bombshells," the trio performed for more than 60 years worldwide. They last performed locally in late February.

"Peggy was the comedian and prankster of the group," the group's co-manager, Desire DiLorenzo, said of the performer who on stage stood sandwiched between the other two. "She lived to perform. She had been ill since September, but two weeks ago at the Boulder Station she performed one song."

Veteran Las Vegas producer Bill Moore saw Peggy in that farewell performance, singing "Old Man Time."

"I've known them for 35 years -- I saw them when they headlined at the London Paladium 25 years ago," said Moore, who produced an Andy Williams show for Caesars Palace, "Moulin Rouge" featuring Suzanne Somers and several ice-themed shows.

"They always sang in English and Spanish, so they appealed to a lot of people."

Next Wednesday the group's last surviving sister, Cherie DeCastro will be presented the key to Las Vegas by Mayor Oscar Goodman at the City Council meeting.

Services for Peggy will be 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Anne Catholic Church.

The DeCastro Sisters had just one hit song, the 1955 Sammy Kahn-penned standard "Teach Me Tonight," which has been re-recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr. and Al Jarreau, among others. The trio also recorded "Besame Mucho."

The sisters over the years made appearances at the Copacabana and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Fountain Bleu in Miami and on several Las Vegas stages.

The group began locally at the Stardust as an opening act for Noel Coward in his only Las Vegas appearance in 1955 and had gigs at the Desert Inn, Dunes, Sahara, Sands, Flamingo, The Orleans, MGM Grand, the International (now Las Vegas Hilton), Caesars Palace and the Silver Slipper.

They are in the Casino Legends Hall of Fame at the Tropicana.

In recent years the DeCastro Sisters featured Peggy, Cherie and Lois Denny, who is not related to the sisters but has been a longtime replacement member.

The original trio included Peggy, Cherie and sister Babette. When Babette left the group to raise a family, she was replaced by cousin Olgita DeCastro. Babette died in 1993, Olgita in 2000.

DiLorenzo said the DeCastro Sisters will go on with new lead singer Maggie Albisani -- who debuted at the Boulder Station show -- Lois Denny and Cherie DeCastro.

Peggy retired once from the trio in 1996 when her second husband, California veterinarian John Carricaburu, became ill. He died two years ago.

Her first husband, longtime group manager Bob Lilley, also preceded her in death.

After Carricaburu died, Cherie traveled to Peggy's then-home in Northern California and successfully coaxed her back into show business.

Born June 24, 1921, on her father's sugar cane plantation in the Dominican Republic, Peggy was the first child of Juan DeCastro and his wife, Babette, a former New York City "Ziegfeld Follies" dancer.

The family moved to New York, where Cherie was born, then to Havana, Cuba, where Babette was born and all three girls were raised.

In one of their first public performances as children, they wore white dresses, carried U.S. flags and sang the U.S. National Anthem. They also performed at parties and church socials, singing American ballads.

"We didn't want to be Latin singers," Peggy told the Sun in 2003. "We wanted to be American."

As teenagers, they imitated the Andrews Sisters and eventually became known as the Andrews Sisters of Cuba. Soon they were playing Cuban nightclubs billed as the Fernandez-DeCastro Sisters.

They came to the United States in 1945 for a tour that began in Miami, went through New York's Radio City Music Hall and finished in California, where they were discovered in a small nightclub called the Club Brazil by famed actress and singer Carmen Miranda.

Miranda put the sisters in her films "Dynamite Wrapped in Glamour" and "Copacabana."

The trio's hit recording got them gigs in Las Vegas showrooms. Over the years they performed with many industry giants, including Bob Hope and George Burns.

Peggy DeCastro is survived by a son, Gene Lilley of Thousand Oaks, Calif.; five stepchildren, Brian, Robert, Janet, Linda and Sally Carricaburu, all of Alaska; five grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. She also was preceded in death by a son, Bobby Carricaburu, who died three years ago.