Broadway Composer Lucy and Singer Joanna Simon passed away due to breast and thyroid cancer respectively.
Carly Simon is in grief after both of her sisters, Broadway composer Lucy Simon and former opera soprano Joanna Simon, died this week just one day apart from each other. According to ET News, Carly's sisters both passed away due to cancer. Joanna died Wednesday from thyroid cancer in a Manhattan hospital. Just one day after, Lucy succumbed to a long battle against metastatic breast cancer at her home in Piedmont, New York. The Simon sisters are children of the publishing magnate and co-founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, Richard Simon.
"I am filled with sorrow to speak about the passing of Joanna and Lucy Simon," Carly Simon said in a statement. "Their loss will be long and haunting. As sad as this day is, it's impossible to mourn them without celebrating the incredible lives that they lived. We were three sisters who not only took turns blazing trails and marking courses for one another, we were each other's secret shares." Carly continued, "The co-keepers of each other’s memories. I have no words to explain the feeling of suddenly being the only remaining direct offspring of Richard and Andrea Simon. They touched everyone they knew and those of us they’ve left behind will be lucky and honored to carry their memories forward. With great and eternal love and respect." The Simon Sisters also had a brother, Peter, a photographer, who also passed away due to cancer at 71 in 2018. In a heartbreaking Facebook post, Lucy's daughter wrote "In the last 2 days, I've been by the side of both my mother and my aunt, Joanna, and watched them pass into the next world. I can't truly comprehend this." To lose more family members to cancer was more than tragic for the Simon Family.
Lucy and Carly entered the music industry as the singing duo: "The Simon Sisters." They released multiple hits, one of which also made it to Number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964. While Carly took off to rise in the pop world with a number of hits such as Anticipation, You're So Vain and That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be, Lucy gained popularity in the 1980s as a children's music producer. She earned a Tony Nomination for Best Original Score, which ran a whopping 709 times on Broadway.
Joanna, the eldest of the Simon siblings made her New York City Opera debut in 1962. She performed all over the world with iconic orchestras. Post her retirement, she shifted to journalism and even won an Emmy in 1991 for her remarkable report on bipolar disorder and creativity. She also worked in real estate, where she met her husband Walter Cronkite in 2005. Before that, she was married to novelist and journalist Gerald Walker from 1976 until his death in 2004, per CBS News. Moving out from the shadow of their very successful father, the Simon siblings built grand lives for themselves and left an equally big legacy behind.
References:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carly-simon-sisters-dead-cancer-joanna-simon-lucy-simon/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images / Photos by (L) Joe Corrigan and (R) Evan Agostini
