TEDDIE JANE DARLING, 1962-1964

Home: California

Current occupation: Performer, composer, instrumentalist, singer

Past jobs/life situations that have contributed to the richness of my life:

The biggest highlight was writing and singing music for the United Nations as a member of the United Nations International Hospitality Committee, and singing while playing my guitar on CNN television world wide for the troops during the Gulf War.

Hobbies/passions that I enjoy: Traveling, fishing, RV, sailing, skiing, astronomy, horseback riding, astronomy, cooking, water ballet, dancing, painting, poetry, composing music,  playing piano, clarinet, flute, guitar, keyboards and harp.

Still involved in twirling? I would like to see twirling become an Olympic sport. It is an inexpensive outlet for children, less dangerous than gymnastics, and is an "original American expression of art." I would like to see it go world wide. Children are mesmerized by it. The manual dexterity it takes to do the different combinations increases the IQ. The earlier they start the better. My mother was a twirler and I have pictures of me holding a baton when I could hardly walk.

What made/makes the Golden Girl position so special: Leadership! Because of having conducting lessons that started at age ten with Commander Charles Brendler of the Navy Band at Gunnison Summer Music Camp in Colorado, having a father who was a band director and having experiences like the lead in the Stockton Symphony Ballet, I found twirling to be a unique way to conduct an entire marching band using my flexibility and expression from dance and twirls to emphasize difference passages of the music. I could feel the entire band following my choreography and uniting in my articulation of rhythm and phrases. My father’s hard work with his students, his students and I all became one in the best band in the Rose Bowl Parade....when we were right in front of the cameras, we put on quite a show.This prepared me for a unique ballet, twirling, conduction style as "Golden Girl."

Favorite memories from being Golden Girl: My favorite memory was performing on the same stage as the “Four Freshmen.” They were a wonderful quartet and reminded me of when I grew up singing with my two sisters in a trio, “The Darling Sisters.” I could hear the same joy we had of singing so closely, developing a unique ability to breath at the same time and then attacking each note as one while hearing a ringing tone from almost perfect harmonics. Very few get to live this experience.
  
I loved performing for all the wonderful people who enjoyed the half time shows and took the time to write letters. Loving to perform for such a huge loving audience, creates a huge loving heart and once again is expressed in my music. 

In LIFE magazine my sister Addie said she interpreted life when she performed.
In the grand entrance from the opera "Aida" onto the football field for halftime back in 1962, I experienced an amazing feeling that I was marching in the footsteps of my diseased sister Addie who died as Golden Girl 1960. It allowed me to drink in and absorb all the compassion and love from such a huge audience and project that love and compassion in return. Now my heart can express it once again in my music. Thank you.

Back to Bios