Perhaps best known for her role in White Christmas, Rosemary Clooney spent several decades as one of America ’s most popular entertainers before her death on 29 June 2002.

An iconic singer, she notched up a long line of hit singles and won over the public with her warm, rich voice.

Also appearing on radio and the TV, the tiredness resulting from her many occupations combined with a host of personal problems and traumas and left her mentally unstable for a period.

But she recovered enough to continue to with her career, receiving an Emmy nomination for her guest role in medical drama ER and a lifetime Grammy award.

Born on 23 May 1928 in Maysville, Kentucky, Rosemary Clooney spent a difficult childhood being shunted between her alcoholic father and mother, who – in turn – left her and her sister home alone and penniless.

But, with gutsy spirit, the girls won an open singing audition at a Cincinnati radio station and were taken on for a regular slot, later joining bandleader Tony Pastor’s orchestra, with which they toured together until 1948, when her sister Betty left.

She continued as a solo vocalist with Pastor but in 1949 and aged 21, keen to move her career on, she travelled to New York, where she soon signed a deal with Columbia records, who were keen to cash in on the heightening popularity of female recording stars.

While at Columbia , she met Mitch Miller, who persuaded her to record the unusual, double-entendre-laden song Come On-a My House, which, to her surprise, leapt to the top of the charts and made her an instant household name.

Having already secured a weekday radio show with famous singer Bing Crosby, she won a role in the 1954 film White Christmas, where she starred alongside Mr Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen and helped make the highest-grossing film of the year.

Mrs Clooney’s popularity continued to soar, but in 1956, having landed her own television series- The Rosemary Clooney Show – her failing marriage combined with her juggling of a heavy schedule and bringing up five children and she became addicted to tranquilizers and sleeping tablets.

After divorcing her husband twice in six years, she suffered a further setback when her close friend Robert F Kennedy, who was campaigning to be Democratic president, was shot dead in Los Angeles, triggering a mental breakdown that she would struggle to recover from.

Mrs Clooney did not give up, however, and went on to be the pitch-person for Coronet paper towels as well as appearing on Bing Crosby’s 50th anniversary tour in 1976, followed by a recording contract with Concord Jazz that led to a handful of successful releases and live performances up until her death from cancer in 2002.

There was no doubt that Mrs Clooney travelled a rocky road, and she admitted she had felt “trapped and fabricated” struggling to maintain the image of a woman who could have it all.

But she continued to thrill and entertain audiences even through her last years, always ready to try her hand at something new.

The depth of feeling and earnestness her singing put across gained her the ongoing admiration of greats such as Bing Crosby, who said she was “the best in the business”.

And The Wall Street Journal called her “A pop icon and spoken in the same breath of Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald”.