Editing Tommy Dorsey (section)

==Personal life==
Dorsey was married three times. His first wife was 16-year-old Mildred "Toots" Kraft, with whom he eloped in 1922, when he was 17. The couple had two children, Patricia and Thomas F. Dorsey III (nicknamed "Skipper"). In 1935, they moved to "Tall Oaks", a {{convert|21|acres|adj=on}} estate in [[Bernardsville, New Jersey]].<ref>Baratta, Amy. [http://www.newjerseyhills.com/bernardsville_news/news/big-band-leader-among-owners-of-historic-home-in-bernardsville/article_e615f6ba-88be-11e1-8b8a-0019bb2963f4.html "Big band leader among owners of historic home in Bernardsville; Dorsey hosted Frank Sinatra, other celebrities"], ''The Bernardsville News'', April 20, 2012. Accessed June 6, 2016. "Known as 'the= sentimental gentleman of swing,' the musician purchased the 21-acre estate for $32,000 in 1935 and lived there with his first wife, Mildred 'Toots' Kraft, and their two children, Patricia and Tommy, for nearly a decade."</ref> They divorced in 1943 after Dorsey's affair with his former singer [[Edythe Wright]].<ref>Levinson 148</ref>

Dorsey's second wife was film actress [[Patricia Dane]] in 1943, and they were divorced in 1947,<ref>Levinson 211</ref> but not before he gained headlines for striking actor [[Jon Hall (actor)|Jon Hall]] when Hall embraced her. Finally, Dorsey married Jane Carl New on March 27, 1948, in Atlanta, Georgia. She had been a dancer at the [[Copacabana (nightclub)|Copacabana]] nightclub in New York City. Tommy and Jane Dorsey had two children, Catherine Susan and Steve.

===Death and aftermath===
Dorsey died on November 26, 1956, at his home in [[Greenwich, Connecticut]], a week after his 51st birthday. He had begun taking sleeping pills regularly at this time, causing him to become heavily sedated; he choked to death in his sleep after eating a large meal.<ref>Levinson 299</ref> Jimmy Dorsey led his brother's band until his own death from [[throat cancer]] the following year. At that point, trombonist [[Warren Covington]] became leader of the band with Jane Dorsey's blessing<ref>"Tommy died with no will and reportedly left only about $15,000[...]. Since [Dorsey's widow] Janie New continued to need money to support her family and because she legally owned the rights to Tommy's library of arrangements, she was naturally very interested when [Willard] Alexander approached her about creating a Tommy Dorsey band". Levinson 308-309</ref> as she owned the rights to her late husband's band and name. Billed as the '''Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Starring Warren Covington''', they reached #7 on the Billboard charts and earned a gold record in the fall of 1958 with the hit single "Tea for Two Cha-Cha".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|title=The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits|publisher=Billboard Books|year=2004|isbn=0823074994|location=New York|pages=191|language=English}}</ref><ref>Levinson 309</ref> The band was also fronted by [[Urbie Green]] after Dorsey's death in 1956.

After Covington left the band, tenor saxophonist [[Sam Donahue]] led it from 1961, continuing until 1966.<ref>Levinson 309-310</ref> [[Frank Sinatra Jr.]] made his professional singing debut with the band at Dallas Memorial Theater in Texas in 1963. Later, trombonist and bandleader [[Buddy Morrow]] led the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra from 1977 until his death on September 27, 2010. Jane Dorsey died of natural causes at the age of 79, in Miami, Florida, in 2003. Tommy and Jane Dorsey are interred together in [[Kensico Cemetery]] in Valhalla, New York.<ref>Jane Dorsey date of death and interment facts from Levinson 320</ref>

[[File:1 Dorsey best 800.jpg|thumb|The grave of Tommy and Jane Dorsey in [[Kensico Cemetery]]]]