Georgia Holt

Life

Born Jackie Jean Crouch in Kensett, Arkansas in 1927 to Lynda Inez Gulley (reportedly aged 13) and Roy Malloy Crouch (a 21-year-old baker), Holt is of Irish, English, German, French, Dutch, and possibly Cherokee descent. She frequently moved back and forth between her separated parents. Holt has estimated that she attended 17 junior high schools. Her father taught her how to sing and play guitar.

Marriages

Holt married six men; twice to two of them. She and her first husband, John Sarkisian, had daughter Cher (born May 20, 1946). Her other child is actress Georganne LaPiere (born September 7, 1951). Through Cher, Holt has two grandchildren, Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman.

Career

Holt sang on an Oklahoma City radio station when she was six years old, and by age 10 sang with bandleader Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. She won several talent and beauty competitions. She had several minor television and film roles in the 1950s. After performing in a singers' workshop in July 1978 at Studio One in Los Angeles, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, and Dinah Shore booked Holt to appear on their television talk shows.

In 2013, Holt and Cher appeared together on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Ellen DeGeneres Show to promote their Lifetime documentary Dear Mom, Love Cher and Holt's album Honky Tonk Woman. The album, which includes a duet with Cher titled "I'm Just Your Yesterday", was recorded in the early 1980s but had never been released.