Joanna and Lucy Simon, Carly Simon’s two sisters, passed away from cancer last week, and she is grieving their deaths.
After it was discovered that Lucy, 82, passed away from metastatic breast cancer on Thursday, and Joanna, 85, passed away from thyroid cancer on Wednesday, the artist, 75, spoke candidly about the loss in a statement to PEOPLE.
“To talk of Joanna and Lucy Simon’s demise brings me to tears. Their sorrow will linger for a very long time “Simon said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Despite how terrible this day is, it is hard to grieve them without also honouring the amazing lives they had. We were three sisters who served as each other’s secret sharing in addition to taking turns blazing paths and charting routes for one another. the joint custodians of one another’s memories.”
Deadline received confirmation on Friday of the passing of Joanna, an opera singer, and Lucy, a Tony Award-nominated Broadway composer. After being diagnosed with lung cancer, their younger brother Peter Simon, a veteran photographer on Martha’s Vineyard, passed away in 2018 at the age of 71.
As the lone surviving child of Richard and Andrea Simon, Simon remarked, “I have no words to describe the emotion. Their sisters affected everyone they knew, and those of us they’ve left behind will be fortunate and privileged to carry their memories forward.”
Following the announcement, Simon’s musical partner Van Dyke Parks sent condolences on Twitter, describing the singer of “You’re So Vein” as “one of the most decent musicians for whom I’ve composed.”
When Lucy and Carly founded the renowned folk group The Simon Sisters in the 1960s, they worked together early on. Before Lucy entered nursing school and wed David Levine in 1967, the two of them collaborated on the song “Wynken, Blynken & Nod” in 1964. Jamie and Julie are two of Simon and Levine’s children.
Lucy finally became the third female composer on Broadway after creating two Grammy-winning children’s albums in the 1980s, In Harmony and In Harmony 2, and receiving a Tony nomination in 1991 for her work on the soundtrack of The Secret Garden.
According to Playbill, Joanna made her operatic debut in 1962 at the New York City Opera in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” Throughout her career, she also appeared at the Seattle Opera, with the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
She subsequently rose to fame as an Emmy-winning arts journalist for PBS’ The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, where she worked up until 1992. From 1976 until his passing in 2004, she was wed to Gerald Walker.
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