Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.
Lawrence Welk turned the Lennon Sisters into household names in 1955 - long before the Osmonds and the Jacksons - and on his television stage they sang for 14 seasons.
As performers, the Lennon Sisters have been around for 50 years. Peggy, now 66, and Dee Dee, 68, are now retired. But Janet, 61, and Kathy, 64, have been singing in Branson, Mo., for almost 15 years.
Janet and Kathy and some of their grandchildren will appear at the FAO Schwar z toy store in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace Saturday, performing from 3 to 5 p.m. and signing their new line of dolls, Best Pals.
The duo recently talked to the Sun by telephone from their home in Branson.
1. Career
Janet: It's been an unbelievable career. We were blessed to have started so young and to have worked with the greats in the business - Ed Sullivan, Perry Como, Sammy Davis Jr., Jack Benny, George Burns, Andy Williams. Jimmy Durante was a jewel. We sang for seven presidents. It's been an incredible career. Young people just starting out today don't have the chance to work with that caliber of talent.
But we traveled and were gone a lot from our family. We had a family of 11 children. We all went to Catholic grammar and high schools. We lived in a great big old house in Venice, Calif., and mom and dad saw to it that we led as normal a life as possible. We would perform Saturday nights at the ABC studios - sing a song, do a show - and then come home, change our little brothers' and sisters' diapers, do homework.
2. Downside
Janet: A fan who had been in and out of mental institutions was, in his mind, married to our sister Peggy. In his mind dad was keeping him from being with Peggy and he shot and killed our dad. We were in our 20s. We trusted our fans so much but he had scared us for years, and there were no stalking laws back then. We couldn't do much about him. He ended up following through on his promises. Mom was left at home with eight children under 18 to raise.
Kathy: It was like a terrible movie, and to think we got through all that. We were going to quit performing. It was Andy Williams who talked us out of it. We never wanted to go on stage live again. We were petrified. But Andy promised we would be safe. He took us to Vegas. He said, "You'll be treated like queens. You'll be all right." So Andy Williams brought us back onstage. The first place we performed after daddy was killed was Caesars Palace.
3. Coping
Janet: We have each other. We've always been close. We were our own therapy, really. We got along so well. We were very open with one another. We dealt with it by talking about it. We all have deep faith in God and believe things happen because they're suppose d to, and our mom had tremendous faith.
Kathy: Mom had the faith of Job. She was a rock. She would comfort us and others, saying, "We don't know the reasons. We'll never know why. We have to accept and go on. And we must know that we are put on Earth for a reason. You are blessed to have had your dad this many years." We were raised that way. It was really the deep faith in God that got us through. You go on. You don't have many options. It was very frightening, continuing to perform and to be around crowds. We had security with us for a long time. That's one of the reasons it was very interesting for us to come to Branson. We work right across the street from where we live. It's a beautiful theater right across the street and we can come home every night.
4. Branson
Kathy: The four of us moved here about 15 years ago, plus many of the children. They worked behind stage with us, some on stage. Three of our brothers, who had a wonderful big band show at the Welk Resort (in Escondido, Calif.) came here to live too. We have four siblings still in California and the rest are here.
Janet: The Lawrence Welk Orchestra was here up until three years ago. It was a big band show, with a lot of the performers from the Lawrence Welk television show. My husband was the conductor and did all the musical arrangements. Then three years ago they stopped that show and since then we've been performing the Christmas show here with the Gatlin Brothers and we love it.
5. Their favorite stars
Janet: We found that the bigger the star, the nicer they were. We ran across one who wasn't - we won't mention whom - but really when you think about it, just one out all the great people we worked with isn't so bad. We loved Perry Como and Jimmy Durante and Sammy Davis, one of our fun, fun friends.
Kathy: Andy Williams. We were very close to him, and still are. The Osmond Brothers. John Davidson. Jack Jones. We're very lucky. We're very close with Glen Campbell. We've worked with them all. It's very hard to say who is our favorite. We were always treated so beautifully.
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