'Sunday Kind of Love' Singer, Brookfield Resident Fran Warren, 87

Brookfield resident and Big Band Era singer Fran Warren passed away on March 4, her 87th birthday, the AP reported Tuesday. According to her spokesman, Warren died at home of natural causes.

Warren — born Frances Wolfe in the Bronx, NY, 1926 — first gained acclaim for her 1947 recording of “A Sunday Kind of Love” with Claude Thornhill and his band. Three years later she recorded what would be her biggest hit, “I Said My Pajamas (and Put On My Pray’rs),” which rose to No. 3 on Billboard Music.

Warren also worked as an actress, appearing in variety programs on television and on stage, including the musical The Pajama Game and the title character in Mame in the 1950s.

Her last tour was with Joe Cabot in the musical review Big Band Broadcast of 1944, which ran from 1979-1982.

According to the AP, she is survived by two daughters, a son-in-law and two nieces.