Ireene Wicker

Who was Ireene Wicker?

Ireene Wicker was an American singer and actress, best known to young radio listeners in the 1930s and 1940s as “The Singing Lady”.

She was born Irene Seaton in Quincy, Illinois. She studied music and drama at the University of Illinois, then studied at the Goodman School of the Theater in Chicago; she appeared in professional roles at the Goodman Theatre in 1929 and 1930.

Early in her radio career she changed the spelling of her first name to Ireene, adding the extra ‘e’ as she was told by a numerologist that one more letter would bring her great success.

Her radio show was first sponsored by the Kellogg Company, beginning in 1931. Her show was promoted as America’s first radio network program for children. Despite the title of her show, "The Singing Lady", most of it involved Wicker telling adaptations of stories for children, ranging from fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen through to Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories.

She married Walter Charles Wicker, a radio writer, producer and actor: they had a son, Walter Charles Jr., who during World War II joined one of the Eagle Squadrons that served with the RAF and was killed in action over the English Channel, and a daughter, Nancy.