Sweet Memories Of Bing And Bob

RICHLAND - Katie Ferguson's uncle wanted to sing the Ave Maria at her parents' wedding in Spokane in 1924.

No way.

Her father didn't think his 21-year-old brother was a good-enough singer to entertain guests.

"Dad never lived that down," recalls Ferguson.

The man who was told he couldn't cut it as a wedding soloist was Bing Crosby, the legendary crooner whose recording career spanned a half-century until his death in 1977.

Ferguson, a former school principal, recalls the story as she journeys to La Jolla, Calif., to visit another famous uncle, Bob Crosby.

It's a sad journey because Bob Crosby, at nearly 79, is seriously ill with cancer, his sharp memory dimmed by Alzheimer's disease. "When Uncle Bob is gone, it will mean the end of a generation of Crosbys," says Ferguson.

Then, she adds, "It will be up to the 26 cousins to carry on family traditions."

Ferguson's father, Edward John "Ted" Crosby, was one of seven Crosby children. He was 13 by the time Bob, the youngest, was born in Spokane.

Bob Crosby, who never wanted to be a singer, was for a time. He also never wanted to lean on his famous brother, but occasionally did. He returned to Spokane after he'd made his mark as a musician.

Bob had brother Bing to thank for his big break.

Bob Crosby was picking strawberries and cucumbers in Spokane - as Bing had done before him - earning 25 cents an hour, when he got a telegram offering him $100 a week to join bandleader Anson Weeks in Los Angeles.

Weeks wanted someone "with a name" for his new singer. When he couldn't get Bing - he settled for Bob.

Bob Crosby favored dixieland jazz rather than Bing's mellifluous crooning and eventually, his Bob Crosby Bob Cats won acclaim.

That original band broke up in 1942 - after it had recorded perhaps the Bob Cats' most famous song: "The Big Noise from Winnetka."

"He loves to listen to his own music," Ferguson says. "He knew the songs and snapped his fingers just as he used to when the band was playing."

Ferguson grew up in a home filled with music.

"We had every record Bing ever made," she remembers. "Some of those records we bought; others, he sent for Christmas," she says of her godfather.

The musical trait that made Crosby a household name, probably came from Ferguson's grandfather - Bing and Bob's father - Harry Lincoln Crosby. The man was so smitten with music that he risked his wife's wrath and spent some of his first month's paycheck from a Spokane brewery on a phonograph.

Bing Crosby, the pipe-smoking hat-wearing crooner, was a frequent visitor to Spokane.