Lennon Sisters celebrate 50 years of singing

BRANSON, Mo. — It's hard to believe, looking at the three lovely women onstage, but Christmas Eve was the 50th anniversary of the Lennon Sisters' television debut.

When the quartet of sisters from Venice, Calif., first appeared on "The Lawrence Welk Show"' in 1955, it was Diane, Kathy, Peggy and Janet. Because they started 50 years ago, everyone thinks they are in their 70s, but when they made their TV debut, Janet was 9 and Kathy was 12.

Diane retired some years ago, preferring private life to singing onstage. When Peggy later made the same decision, younger sister Mimi stepped up; for the past several years, the Lennon Sisters have been a family-harmony trio, performing in Branson, Mo.

AP: Does it feel like 50 years since you began your career?

Janet Lennon: We started when we were so young, and we never really had this burning desire to be onstage or on television, but it just kept happening. So we always say, we're famous and still working in spite of ourselves, because this wouldn't probably be anything we would have chosen as children to do when we grew up.

Kathy Lennon: When you think of 50 years, you think of Bob Hope or George Burns or something like that. When we announced during our show that we're celebrating our 50th anniversary — Christmas Eve 1955 was the original night — it's just shocking to us.

AP: Some people can't get along with one sister, seeing them just once or twice a year. What can we learn from you?

JL: We learned growing up at home — there's 11 of us — Mom told us her home was going to be filled with love, and there would be no arguing, because there were too many of us and we didn't have time for arguing. And we took that into our singing with us and into our performing. We didn't have jealousies because none of us cared if any of us was the star or not.

KL: And Mom and Dad made it such a normal childhood, even though we were doing Perry Como shows and Ed Sullivan shows and a weekly television show every Saturday night for 13 years, and then our own shows. We would sing and then go home and do dishes and change younger siblings' diapers and do our homework and go to regular school. We had a rule that minority rules: If any one of us was uncomfortable with a business decision, the other three would say "OK, if you feel it's that important." It wasn't about winning, it was about peace.

AP: How did you escape the seeming curses that follow most child performers?

JL: We had a loving environment everywhere we went. We went from a wonderful sheltered home to an environment on the Welk show for 13 years, where the orchestra were like our big brothers and none of the crew swore around us. Growing up on the show, we had this environment around us until we were in our 20s.