Dorothy Jones born 16 May 1934

Dorothy Jones (May 16, 1934 - Dec 15, 2010) was a founding member of the Cookies, an American R&B girl group in the 1950s to 1960s. Members of the original line-up would later become The Raelettes, the backing vocalists for Ray Charles.  

Dorothy Jones, was born in South Carolina, but as a child moved to Brooklyn. At seven she joined the choir of the First Baptist Church in Coney Island. She continued singing, drifted into backup session work, and later  brought Brooklyn friends Earl-Jean McCrea and Margaret Ross into the business. McCrea born in North Carolina, moved at the age two to Brooklyn, finished high school and was working as an IBM operator when Jones brought her into the record business. They Recorded for Lamp Records in 1954. Together they became the Cookies making their debut at The Apollo Theatre on Amateur Night, winning the contest. There they were spotted by an Jesse Stone of Atlantic Records, who brought them to the label for vocal sessions in 1955.

One of the sessions produced In Paradise, a 1956 hit that went to number 9 on the R&B charts. Robertson was replaced in 1956 by Margie Hendricks (Hendrix). The group was introduced to Ray Charles through their session work for Atlantic Records. After backing him and other Atlantic Records artists, McCrea and Hendricks helped form The Raelettes in 1958. Pat Lyles was a Raelette, but never a Cookie.

In 1961, a new version of the Cookies emerged in New York, with Dorothy Jones joining newcomers "Earl-Jean" McCrea (Darlene's younger sister) and another of Dorothy's cousins, Margaret Ross. Jones also recorded one solo recording for Columbia in 1961. This trio had the greatest success as the Cookies, under their own name, as backing vocals for other artists, including Neil Sedaka's hit songs "Breaking Up is Hard to Do", "The Dreamer" and "Bad Girl"; and recording demos for Aldon Music, under the direction of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. They provided the backup vocals for the Little Eva hit song, "The Loco-Motion", as well as her follow-up hit "Let's Turkey Trot", both from 1962. They scored their biggest hit in 1963 with the song "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)", which reached #3 on the Billboard R&B chart and #7 on the Billboard Pop chart. 

 

A 1962 hit, "Chains", was later recorded by The Beatles. Earl-Jean McCrea left the group in 1965 after two solo singles, which included the first recording of the Goffin/King song, "I'm Into Something Good".

As the British Invasion hit the American shores, hits started drying up for the girl groups and, even though they released several recordings under pseudonyms, mostly with Margaret Ross on lead, hey never managed another hit. Their alter egos on recordings were The Palisades (Chairman), The Stepping Stones (Philips), The Cinderellas (Dimension) and The Honey Bees (Fontana).

 In April 1967 they released their last record, produced by The Tokens. Darlene McCrea returned to replace her sister for this recording after which the group broke up.
 

At that point, Dorothy focused her attention on her growing family.  She moved to Columbus in 1970, where she and her husband brought up their twelve children.  In 1997, several surviving members of the group appeared on Fordham University's WFUV "Group Harmony Review" program to discuss their career.  Dorothy and two others resumed performing again as The Cookies and continued up until she was forced to retire due to poor health. 

Dorothy Jones died on Christmas Day, 2010, in Columbus, Ohio from Alzheimer's Disease. She was 76.

Margaret Ross, now Margaret Williams, tours today as The Cookies with new back-up singers. She also performs with Barbara Harris and The Toys occasionally. (Info edited mainly from Wikipedia and History Of Rock)