Helen Ward

Helen Ward (New York City, September 19, 1913 – April 21, 1998, Arlington, Virginia) was an American jazz singer. Her father had taught her piano, and she appeared on radio broadcasts with WOR and WNYC. She also worked as a staff musician at WNYC. Starting in 1934, she sang in Benny Goodman's first band, and became one of the first popular swing "girl singers", as they were then called, and among Goodman's most popular. She and Benny had a brief romance and he came very close to proposing marriage to her in either 1935 or 1936.