Doris Day in Cincinnati

Oh hey, Doris Day!

Freckles and a girl-next-door appearance made Doris Day a musical and motion picture sensation. She wowed audiences across the world, captured the hearts of men and women alike, and was a woman of unquestionable integrity and morals. Throughout her career she sang with dozens of Hollywood’s leading men, went nearly bankrupt because of a horrible husband, and spoke out about the AIDS pandemic when it was a very taboo topic. She was, in short, simply and utterly amazing. 

Born in a small suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff was the only daughter of German immigrants, Alma and Frederick Kappelhoff. She grew up in a brick, two-family house in Evanston with her mother and older brother Paul. The house was a modest, but comfortable dwelling and Doris blossomed while living in Cincinnati. The bustling Ohio city offered the young starlet many opportunities to spread her wings and hone her talents. She took dancing and singing lessons, and she and her partner, Jerry, won a local talent contest in 1937. With that one success, Doris Kappelhoff was on her way to being Doris Day. Five hundred dollars in their pockets and hope in their hearts, they set out for Hollywood – and the rest is history.

Though she became one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, Doris never forgot (or dismissed) her Ohio roots. “My roots in Cincinnati go very deep. I didn’t leave there wanting to escape to someplace better. I only left because the tide of events washed me away. I could have happily lived my entire life in Cincinnati, married a proper Cincinnatian, living in an old Victorian house, raising a brood of offspring, but preordination, which I sincerely believe in, had other plans for me.”