The Singing Nun

Jeanine Deckers (born Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers; October 17, 1933 – March 29, 1985), better known as The Singing Nun, was a nun, and a member (as Sister Luc Gabriel) of the Dominican Fichermont Convent in Belgium. Popular in the convent for her music, she was encouraged by the other nuns to record an album in 1963. One song from that album, "Dominique", soared to the top of the charts in the United States. Overnight, the Dominican nun was an international celebrity with the stage name of Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile). She gave concerts and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. She won a Grammy for "Dominique", the first (and so far only) Catholic sister to win a Grammy award. In 1966, a movie called The Singing Nun was made about her, starring Debbie Reynolds in the title role; Deckers rejected the film as "fictional". As the 1960s progressed, Deckers stopped performing in favor of a more rigorous devotional life. In 1967, she left to pursue her musical career, though most of her earnings went to the convent. Despite her renewed musical emphasis, Deckers gradually faded into obscurity, possibly because of her own disdain for fame: her second album, released in 1967, was titled I Am Not a Star in Heaven. Although she was deeply religious, she was also increasingly critical of the Roman Catholic Church's conservatism and eventually became an advocate of birth control. She also agreed with John Lennon's statements about Jesus in 1966. In 1967, she recorded a song entitled "Glory Be to God for the Golden Pill" — a paean to contraception — under the name Luc Dominique. It met with large commercial failure. Her musical career over, Deckers opened a school for autistic children in Belgium with her companion of ten years, Annie Pécher. In the late 1970s (mentioned in the July 22, 1978 broadcast of American Top 40), the Belgian government claimed that she owed around US$50,000 in back taxes. Deckers countered that the money was given to the convent and therefore exempt from taxes. Lacking any receipts to prove her donations to the convent and her religious order, Deckers ran into heavy financial problems. One last attempt to resume her singing career failed in 1982. She and Pécher both died by an intentional overdose of barbiturates and alcohol. The exact nature of their relationship has never been confirmed although the two were close and were buried together.