Kathryn Crosby dead at 90, Bing’s wife had fond memories of Pebble Beach – Monterey Herald

PEBBLE BEACH >> In 2006, Kathryn Crosby told the Herald it felt wonderful, after a 20-year absence, to be back at the tournament her husband, Bing Crosby, founded and brought to the Monterey Peninsula in 1947.

She fondly recalled the good old days to Herald reporter Karen Ravn.

“Every year there were favorite memories,” she said.

Crosby, 90, died of natural causes Friday night at her Hillsborough home, a family spokesman said Saturday.

Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff on November 25, 1933, in West Columbia, Texas, she arrived in Hollywood and began her film career in 1953. She appeared in films such as “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” “Anatomy of a Murder” and “Operation Mad Ball” before marrying Crosby, the famous singer and Oscar-winning actor.

She met Crosby while giving interviews for a Hollywood column in her hometown newspaper. They married in 1957.

She ended her acting career after the marriage, although she often appeared with Crosby and their three children in his television Christmas specials and in Minute Maid orange juice commercials.

In 2006, her two sons, Nathaniel and Harry, brought her back to the tournament, which has since changed its name to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Crosby herself had played the fairways of Pebble Beach in her youth, but in 2006, at age 72, she was just watching.

“A lot?” Ravn asked him.

“A lot of things when my sons play,” she said.

“Does anything about their golf remind him of Bing?” Ravn asked.

“Their swings,” she said, “and their love of the game.”

Ravn wrote that while “Crosby’s memories were warm, sunshine wasn’t always part of them. … The phrase “Crosby weather” refers to the rain and wind that golfers so often faced during the tournament.

“…Not that a little storm – or a lot of storm – ever bothered her husband.”

“It never rains on a golf course,” Crosby told Ravn. “That’s what Bing said.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.