Ruby Murray

*29 March 1935 in Belfast, Northern Ireland †17 December 1996 in Torquay, England, UK Ruby Murray was a popular singer born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her characteristic hoarse voice was a result of an operation on her throat in early childhood. She toured as a child singer, and first appeared on television at the age of 12. Her first single was Heartbeat, which reached the UK top 5 in 1954. The next, Softly, Softly, reached number 1 in 1955, a year in which Murray achieved the rare feat of having five singles in the top twenty at the same time. She married Bernie Burgess and moved to England in 1957. Her second husband was Ray Lamar. A play by Marie Jones about Murray's life, Ruby, opened at the Group Theatre in Belfast in April 2000. Her name lives on in Cockney rhyming slang as the rhyme for curry.