Shirley Harmer [archived obituary]

She was the city’s ‘Queen of Oshawa’ in the 1950s: Shirley Harmer, 2016 Walk of Fame inductee, dies at 92

Harmer shared stage with some of the biggest stars of the era from Liberace, to Robert Goulet, to Johnny Carson and Josephine Baker

Oshawa This Week

By Tim Kelly

May 28, 2024

She was the ‘Queen of Oshawa’ in the mid-1950s and Shirley Harmer certainly rose to the heights, singing at the Hollywood Bowl, Maple Leaf Gardens, appearing with Liberace and chatting with Johnny Carson on his late-night talk show.

Harmer, whose showbiz career was at its height in the 50s and 60s including roles in Hollywood movies, died recently on May 7. She was 92.

Born in Oshawa, or more precisely, Thornton’s Corners on March 25, 1932, Harmer grew up in a musical family according to her nephew Chris Lea, who said his aunt was a “born entertainer.”

“In the press, she’s often referred to just as Shirley in the headlines. That’s the level of fame she had in the 50s,” Lea said in an interview.

Indeed, in a front-page section from the Toronto Daily Star from June 14, 1954, there are four pictures of the 22-year-old with one showing her on a bicycle by the mailbox in front of her home near Stevenson and King streets. Others show her around the piano singing with her family, with her father holding a Toronto Star newspaper bag (she’d been a carrier as a child) and in a fancy dress for a performance. The headline says: Once a Star Weekly Carrier, Shirley on Way to Films.

Another newspaper, this time her hometown Daily-Gazette of August 1954, shows her being crowned Queen of Oshawa at the Oshawa Fair in Alexandra Park that weekend. It salutes the young star’s rise in the world of entertainment.

Inducted into the Oshawa Walk of Fame in 2016, Harmer lived a glamorous life that started young, Lea said.

“She began entertaining when she was 14. Her mother was kind of a stage mother and would take my mom and Shirley and her older sister Lorraine down to CFRB for the regular radio show,” Lea said.

“She started working almost immediately, at dance halls when she was 15, and then later at Maple Leaf Gardens in the 1950s and on to the Hollywood Bowl,” he said. He said she also sang at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Lea said Harmer was on the Johnny Carson show in the mid- to late-1960s and got to chat with the “King of Late Night,” himself.

There is a clip of Harmer singing “I could have danced all night” from the musical “My Fair Lady,” with Liberace taken from the 1957 CBC show Chrysler’s Festival. Other clips include her in duets with rising young Canadian star singer-actor Robert Goulet.

In later years, after moving to Italy, Harmer wound up doing about 75 shows with the legendary Josephine Baker.

After moving back to the United States, Harmer returned to Canada just over a decade ago. Her final years were spent at the Bartlett, a seniors apartment building about a block from her childhood home.

“Her ukulele skills will be especially missed by The Pink Ladies, her last girl band,” said Lea.

Lea said no funeral was planned but the family will hold a wake.

HARMER, Shirley [3/25/1932, Thornton's Corners, Ontario, Canada – 5/7/2024, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada] – singer, actress married to singer, actor George Murray (George Alexander Murray) [1913-1982] (1954-1959), member of Boyd Valleau and his Orchestra.

Blood River – 1969 [sings: “Blood River”]