Biografia

Another ribald entertainer, Bette Midler, was greatly influenced by Sophie and shamelessly borrowed many of her more risqué jokes for her own highly successful nightclub acts and big forum concerts in the 1970s.

Increasingly known for her philanthropy, Tucker's favorite charities targeted youth centers, a high school wing in Israel, the Theater Arts program at Brandeis University, a maternity clinic at Denver's General Rose Memorial Hospital, and Hartford's Emmanuel Synagogue. In 1955 Tucker raised almost one million dollars in a benefit performance on behalf of the Hebrew Old People's Home.

She beat Marlene Dietrich to the punch by creating a national scandal when she introduced pants to the U.S.

She married and divorced three times. She married first husband Louis Tuck while in her hometown as a teen; her second husband, Frank Westphal, was her pianist at the time; and third husband Al Lackey was a fan who turned into her business manager. It led to her promise in the song "I'm Living Alone": "There isn't going to be a fourth Mr. Ex / and I'll be darned if I'm paying anymore alimony checks / I'm living alone and I like it!"

Durable singer and occasional actress whose career spanned more than six decades. A formidable lady both personally and as a singer, posessed of a clear alto voice and saucy wit, her theme song and biggest hit was "Some of These Days," but she also introduced such standards as "M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me)" and "My Yiddishe Momma."