Italian-American, Corey was born in Avonmore, Pennsylvania, a coal mining community about forty miles east of Pittsburgh. Her father, Bernard Speranza, was a coal miner, and she was the youngest of five children. She is a 1953 graduate of Bell-Avon High School. Corey began singing as an imitator of Carmen Miranda at family gatherings and on amateur shows in grade school. At the age of 13, she began to develop her own style. She won first prize at a talent contest sponsored by the Lions Club, which entitled her to sing a song on WAVL in Apollo, Pennsylvania. This got her an offer to have her own program. By the age of 14 she was working seven nights a week, earning $5 a night, with a local orchestra led by Johnny Murphy. By the age of 17 she was a local celebrity talent. It was suggested she make a tape recording to demonstrate her singing skills to the outside show business world. She made the recording at the home of the only owner of a tape recorder in town, with trains going by in the background and no accompaniment. But the tape came to the attention of Mitch Miller, who headed the artists & repertory section at Columbia Records. He normally received over 100 record demos a week, and this one, with a 17-year-old girl and its train background, would not have been likely to gain his attention. He telephoned her in Avonmore, and the next morning she flew to New York to be heard by Miller in a more normal studio setting. Miller had Life Magazine send over reporters and photographers, and had her audition with Arthur Godfrey and Dave Garroway. The Life photographers reenacted her signing a contract with Columbia, and all this happened in a single day, with her headed back to Avonmore that night. Both Garroway and Godfrey called her, and it was her choice to pick one; she picked Garroway, who took the name Jill Corey out of a telephone book. Within six weeks the Life article, with a cover picture and seven pages, came out. Jill Corey became the youngest star ever at the Copacabana nightclub, and had numerous hit records. Corey was a regular on the television variety programs Robert Q's Matinee, The Dave Garroway Show, and the 1958-1959 version of Your Hit Parade. She was co-host of Music on Ice, a variety program on NBC. She also worked on television with Ed Sullivan. In 1956 she became a regular on Johnny Carson's CBS-network comedy-variety show from California. In addition, she had her own syndicated radio and television shows. In 1959 she starred in a feature-length musical film for Columbia Pictures, Senior Prom. A two-CD compilation of her complete singles was released in June, 2015.
Marriage
Corey suspended her career to marry Pittsburgh Piratesthird basemanDon Hoak on December 28, 1961 in Pittsburgh. They had a daughter, Clare. Hoak died of a heart attack at age 41 after they had been married eight years. She then resumed her career in New York City. An Associated Press article published in February 1973 pointed out the difficulties that Corey faced in attempting a comeback. "Today I don't know how to audition, how to get people interested in booking me," she said. Determined to succeed, she said, "Somehow, I'm going to find a way to tell people I'm back, and that I want to sing."
Discography
A two-CD compilation of her complete singles, "Love Me to Pieces" on Jasmine Records: http://www.jasmine-records.co.uk/acatalog/jascd-817.html
