Mona Baptiste born 21 June 1928

Mona Baptiste (21 June 1928 – 25 June 1993) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born singer and actress in London and Germany. She was largely popular from songs such as "Calypso Blues" and "There's Something in the Air". She also acted in multiple musical films.  

Born into a well-known family in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 21 June 1928, one of five sisters, Mona Baptiste was 14 when she began singing on the radio and at dances, later becoming involved with the Little Carib Theatre. She migrated to England in 1948 on the HMT Empire Windrush, which arrived at Tilbury Docks, Essex, on 22 June, the day after her 20th birthday. One of the few women on the ship, she had travelled first class. While she presented herself as a clerk to London immigration, she began working towards her singing career very soon afterwards.

On 9th August, barely six weeks after disembarking at Tilbury, she and Lord Beginner appeared on the BBC’s Light Programme with Stanley Black and his Dance Orchestra. During March and April 1949 she was in Nottingham with Cab Kaye singing with the cabinettes. The Leamington Spa Courier of 15th July 1949 reported: ‘making one of her rare appearances outside London is guest artiste Mona Baptiste, the coloured singing star from Trinidad, who is currently playing at the Saville Theatre and with Stephane Grappelli.’ At the end of August she was at the Hasting Pier Theatre, while in September she performed in Yarmouth.

Over the next few years, she appeared in the British music magazine New Musical Express for events such as appearing on the television show Coloured Follies and appearing on the British radio variety show Bandbox in 1950 alonside Tony Hancock. She also started singing at Quaglino's restaurant and their Allegro to great success in 1950. On 27th June 1951 the Daily Mirror found another way of describing her skin tone when it reported: ‘Mona Baptiste, coffee-hued song girl, secures her first acting role in the New Lindsey play Tiger Bay.‘ Also in 1951 she worked with Ted Heath's band and other jazz groups, and recorded for Melodisc her version of "Calypso Blues", a song originally performed by Nat King Cole.

 Invited by Tves Montand to Paris, she appeared at top cabaret spot La Nouvelle Eve, and went on to perform in Belgium and Germany, where she was a great success and decided to settle. In Germany, where she had a house in Krefeld, she gained recognition for her popular songs such as "There's Something in the Air. In 1953 she got her first record contract. With the orchestra Werner Müller recorded her first record "Wer mich küßt, ist gefangen". 

                             

She sang on many records, singing in English, French, German and Spanish, she played the saxophone too and was to appear in films as well. The IMDb site credits her with appearances in a total of 15as well as starring in Porgy and Bess for East German television. IMDb also lists a whole string of appearances on TV including ‘Six Five Special’ (in 1958), ‘Oh Boy’ (1959) and even ‘The Ken Dodd Show’ (1961) – by now she was billed as an international singing star.

Baptiste married Michael Carle, whom she had met in London in March 1951. A witness at the wedding was Frank Weir, a bandleader who would knew Mona from the concert circuit. Mona and her husband lived together in Germany for many years and had one son, Marcel. The move to Germany did nothing to hinder Mona’s career and she appeared in many films from 1953 (‘Spiel mit dem Gluck‘ ) through to 1981 (‘So shon wie heut, so muht es bleiben’ ). Her concert career continued unabated too, in December 1957 ‘The Stage’ reports an appearance at the Rheinhalle in Dusseldorf (among others, the Tiller Girls, a well known troupe of dancers at the time, were also on the bill).

Michael Carle died in a car accident (skidding on an icy road) in 1958 and Mona later re-married a Liam Morrison who was described as ‘Irish tourist chief’. She spent most of the 60’s bringing up her son. In 1972 she moved to Ireland, where her second husband was from, and she tried to make a comeback, but could not continue her old successes. According to son Marcel, her husband did not want her to go on tour and the marriage appears to have been an unhappy one. “It was my mother’s one mistake to marry him as it ruined her career as a singer.”

After suffering a stroke, she died aged 65, on 25 June 1993 in Dublin, Ireland, where she had lived for a number of years with her second husband, Liam Morrison.  She was buried in Deans Grange Cemetery.

(Her place of death was erroneously reported as Krefeld in Der Spiegel) 

Wikipedia, Historycal Roots & Camden New Journal)