Carly Simon lost both of her sisters to cancer this week.
The 78-year-old singer is mourning the death of Broadway composer Lucy Simon after a battle with breast cancer just a day after former opera singer Joanna Simon lost her battle with cancer of thyroid
Both deaths – Lucy was 82, while Joanna was 85 – have been confirmed by a source close to Carly, although she has yet to publicly comment on the losses.
Carly, Lucy and Joanna were born in New York to parents Richard L. Simon, founder of the publishing house Simon Schuster, and his wife Andrea, a civil rights activist and singer.
In the early 1960s, Lucy and Carly formed their own folk singing duo called The Simon Sisters.
Although both had solo careers, Lucy was most successful as the composer of the Broadway musical “The Secret Garden” in 1991, for which she earned a Tony nomination.
He went on to compose for the stage adaptation of “Doctor Zhivago” and the HBO film “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.”
Before his illness progressed, he had been working on ‘On Cedar Street’, a musical adaptation of the 2015 novel ‘Our Souls At Night’.
In 1962, Joanna made her debut at the New York City Opera as Mozart’s Cherubino, and has performed on stage with the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
He continued to work as an arts correspondent for PBS’s ‘MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour’ until 1992, and later worked in real estate.
Lucy and Joanna were predeceased by their brother, photographer Peter Simon, who died of cardiac arrest aged 71 in 2018 after being treated for cancer.
