06/07/2026
A sweet memory!
Mitch Miller probably will be remembered best as the
man who made
America sing along.
His 1960s television show, with old favorites performed by a men’s chorus as the lyrics appeared on the screen, brought out the crooner in everybody.
He produced numerous best-selling albums that came complete with song sheets.
But Miller, who died in Manhattan July 31 at age 99, also produced a record that won him a special place in the hearts of a congregation of sisters as benefactor
and friend.
The story involves
an almost chance liaison
—or a providential one
—between the Catholic sisters and the jovial, successful record executive who was the
son of a Russian Jewish immigrant and his wife.
It all happened in the archdiocese in the
early 1960s.
The Dominican Sisters of Newburgh, founders of Mount St. Mary College there, launched a fund-raising campaign for the construction of a novitiate and a college building.
The superior, Mother Leo Vincent Short, O.P., had the idea of augmenting the effort by forming a chorus of sisters to cut a record
and sell it.
She spoke with
Sister Jeanne d’Arc McCann, O.P., a gifted music director in the congregation had fine voices.
But it’s one thing to sing, and another to produce a professional recording.
The sisters needed help,
and they prayed for it.
Mother Leo Vincent later wrote that the answer to those prayers “appeared
—with beard.”
Mitch Miller did indeed sport a neatly trimmed goatee.
He was widely known
for his program,
“Sing Along With Mitch,”
and for his recordings.
But he also was a prominent producer with Columbia Records who helped launch the careers of chart-topping singers including
Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney and Patti Page.
It happened that he was a friend of Father John Cannon, then a priest of the archdiocese who was a musician and the brother of Sister Rose Anita Cannon, O.P., of the Newburgh congregation.
When Father Cannon heard of the sisters’ plan, he suggested that they ask Miller for advice.
Mother Leo Vincent,
Sister Jeanne d’Arc and Sister Rose Anita met with him, and Miller offered
more than advice;
he offered the use of his recording studio and whatever help he could provide.
In the end, he even put the sisters’ chorus on his television show.
“How it all fell together is just miraculous,”
said Sister Jean Meyer, O.P., congregation archivist and a member of the chorus.
The meeting with Miller took place in November 1961. More than a year of hard work followed before the recording was made in 1963.
Sister Jeanne d’Arc held auditions and selected about 65 sisters for the chorus. Sister Jean said in an interview that most of the singers were full-time teachers at schools in
New York, New Jersey
or Connecticut.
They had to travel to Mount St. Mary on Saturdays to practice.
“Sister Jeanne d’Arc was a hard taskmaster, so the record is as close to professional as you’d ever get with amateurs,”
Sister Jean said.
Sister Maryann Ronneburger, O.P., agreed. Also a chorus member, she’s now on the congregation’s leadership team.
“It was really hard work,”
she told CNY.
Sister Jeanne d’Arc compiled a list of possible selections for the album, and Miller chose those he thought would be
most appealing to the general public.
The album tracks include “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “Whistle a Happy Tune” and Mozart’s “Alleluia.”
Miller also suggested the theme for the album, and that became its title: “Joy.” The chorus members
—called “The Singing Sisters”
—traveled by bus to Manhattan and recorded the 15 tracks on the album in a single day at Miller’s Columbia studio.
They were accompanied by a pianist of the congregation, Sister Ann Leo Ruppert, O.P.
Almost half a century later, the sisters still recall Miller’s warmth and goodness.
“He was so kind to us,”
Sister Maryann said.
“He had a catered lunch ready for us when
we got there.
He was just wonderful.”
Sister Monica Socinski, O.P., who teaches Mediterranean languages, remembers Miller as “a wonderful, friendly, easygoing person.”
“He seemed to be smiling all the time, and very happy with us, and we got that sense of rapport with him,” she said.
On the day of the taping, the sisters also were filmed for their appearance on
Miller’s program.
That required some unusual preparation beforehand:
The sisters had to paint part of their headgear yellow.
At that time they wore traditional Dominican habits with a white band across the forehead, and a white lining on their black veils that framed their faces.
It was too much white for the television cameras
of the era.
“Our faces would have been obliterated,”
Sister Monica explained.
She added that they used tempera to paint the plastic headbands, and dye to color the sharkskin lining
of the veils.
Even the new habits they wore were too white, so the Singing Sisters borrowed older habits made of serge from other sisters, because the serge had a creamy tint.
When the record was released, the sisters gave concerts at or near the schools they staffed
to boost sales.
The record also was
sold at churches.
It raised about $200,000
for the building campaign,
a large amount in the 1960s.
Mother Leo Vincent estimated the value of Miller’s services, including the use of the studio, at a minimum of $6,000.
In the congregation’s archives is a letter to
Mother Leo Vincent from Mitch Miller after the recording session.
“Sister Jeanne d’Arc and
the other sisters were just marvelous in the way they adapted themselves to the technical hazards of our crazy television business,”
he wrote.
He said that he was sending a kinescope
—a film recording
—of the sisters’ television performance.
He added,
“I am enclosing a check for $5,000.00 which should help to pay for a few bricks on
whichever building you decide to apply it.”
The campaign was successful and the buildings—Guzman Hall and
Aquinas Hall
—went up.
Mount St. Mary has enlarged Aquinas Hall and added new buildings and programs since then.
The Newburgh sisters merged with two other Dominican congregations
in 1995 to form a
new congregation, the Dominican Sisters of Hope.
Vinyl records were
eclipsed by new recording technologies, and Sister Jean had a CD made of the original album to preserve it, but only a few copies remain.
“Listening to it now,”
Sister Maryann said,
“there’s a lot of joy that comes, and a lot of good memories.”
Mostly lost to memory, though, is a comic parody
of an old song that the sisters apparently wrote to express their gratitude to Miller.
No one knows which song they used, but it might
have been
“You Are My Sunshine.”
Miller closed his letter
to Mother Leo Vincent
with these words:
“I was so touched when the sisters sang the song with the special lyrics for me,
I am compelled to sign
this letter, Your bearded sunshine, Mitchell Miller.”
