How I Got My Name

When my parents met, both were students in Minnesota's Twin Cities, Minneapolis-St. Paul, my father in electronics (which he had worked with in the Army) and my mother in secretarial studies. They decided to get married when my father had graduated and been hired by a radio station (KXGN) in in Glendive, Montana. (I don't know whether my mother ever actually got a secretarial certificate, but she worked successfully as an administrative assistant for many years.) My father did many things for this radio station--disc jockey, news announcer, repairman, janitor, etc. It was a small outfit and everyone pitched in to keep the enterprise going. At one point my father was voted the most popular DJ in the market--most of eastern Montana. I don't know how much competition there was, but radio was the most popular entertainment back then, since television was just barely getting off the ground. We have a big poster from back then with his photo advertising his appearance at a fair or something. He was rather cute back then. Anyway, he spent his days playing records of the popular songs of the day and reading the news, etc. One of these favorite songs was sung by Frank Sinatra about his daughter. It was called "Nancy with the Laughing Face." Apparently, my parents really liked the song and named me after it. My middle name, Jo, came from another singer of the time, Jo Stafford, whom my parents liked, too.