One Year Ago Today, We Lost the Last Surviving Member of the Vocal Quartet Whose No. 1 Hit Soundtracked ‘Halloween,’ ‘Deadpool,’ and ‘Stranger Things’

Has there even been a more infectious tune in the history of sound than “Mr. Sandman”? Written by Pat Ballard, all-girl barbershop quartet the Chordettes turned the breezy nighttime anthem into the chart-topping pop standard we all recognize today. On this day (August 22) in 2025, the final surviving member of the Chordettes, Marjorie Latzko, died at her home in Saratoga Springs, New York, at age 96. On the first anniversary of her death, we’re diving into her life and career.

Who Was Marjorie Latzko?

Born July 15, 1929, in Hinsdale, Illinois, Marjorie Needham Latzko was a hometown beauty queen whose parents dabbled in music and community theater.

Growing up in Berwyn, Illinois, Latzko learned to play the piano by ear and sang in the choir at J. Sterling Morton High School in Cicero.

After graduation, she studied music and performed in the college choir at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

However, Latzko left college after two years once she “realized that I wasn’t talented enough to give a senior piano recital,” according to a 2014 newspaper interview.

How She Went From the Sky to the Stage

Putting higher education on hold, Latzko worked as a stewardess for United Airlines from 1951 to 1953. In June of that year, she received a telephone call that would change her entire life’s trajectory.

While working in Chicago to stay close to her family, she formed a barbershop quartet with her mother.

That’s how Marjorie Latzko met Bob Haegar, a well-known barbershop singer and friend of the Chordettes.

The vocal quartet formed in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1946. Their popularity took off after they won top prize on the popular CBS program Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts in 1949.

 “On Wednesday, late June of 1953, Bob Haeger called me and said, ‘How would you like to sing with the Chordettes?’” Latzko said. “I replied, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ I was such a big fan of theirs.”

So she packed up her worldly belongings and met the Chordettes at a hotel in Cleveland, Ohio.

The next 10 days were a crash course in the group’s 16 songs and choreographed club routine before Latzko made her debut at the Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After a month of state fairs and club dates, the Chordettes arrived in New York City, where she met the group’s arranger and coach, Walter Latzko, for the first time.

After a whirlwind courtship, the couple tied the knot in December 1953.

Life After the Chordettes

Likely, the next three years felt ripped straight from a movie script for Marjorie Latzko.

With the Chordettes, she performed for President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon.

They also made the television rounds, appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show, Perry Como Show, Dick Clark Show, and more.

In December 1956, she left the Chordettes and moved to Blooming Grove, New York, to start a family. Walter and Marjorie Latzko had three children: sons Jeffrey and Curtis; and a daughter, Melanie.

At 45 years old, Marjorie resumed her higher education, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Empire State College, SUNY, in 1974.

She put her education to use in her second career in public service. From 1987 to 2014, Latzko operated her own personal management service for the elderly, dependent or disabled.

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Meanwhile, her vocals on “Mr. Sandman” have soundtracked numerous movie and TV scenes across the decades, including Halloween II (1981), Uncle Buck (1989), Sleepy Hollow (2013), Deadpool (2016), and Stranger Things (2016).

Featured image by Gilles Petard/Redferns