Lobo Nocho
| Lobo Nocho | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ernest Leroy Nocho 14 January 1919 Philadelphia, US |
| Died | 4 September 1997 (aged 78) New York City |
| Nationality | African-American/French |
| Occupation | Jazz singer and painter |
Ernest Leroy Nocho (14 January 1919 – 4 September 1997), better known by his stage name Lobo Nocho, was an African-American émigré jazz singer and painter in Europe. A former United States citizen, he settled in Europe after serving in World War II, and renounced his citizenship in 1950 to become a French citizen. He was later widely noted for his romantic links to Winston Churchill's daughter Sarah Churchill.
Nocho was born in Philadelphia, one of six children of Samuel Nocho and Mary Jackson. He spent his youth in the city, graduating from Simon Gratz High School. His talent for painting and drawing manifested itself early in his youth; he was a shy boy who spent much of his time alone doing crayon sketches of adults. His teachers at Gratz High remembered him as an outstanding art student whose paintings won municipal awards and were exhibited in major department stores such as Wanamaker's and Gimbels.
However, Nocho disliked life in Philadelphia, particularly due to issues of race relations; as his elder brother Edward Nocho put it, "he just couldn't adjust to Philadelphia life anymore and once told me that everyone who looked at him on the street regarded him not as a painter, not even as a human being, but as a black man." Some time after graduating high school, he moved to Quebec and enlisted in the Canadian Army there. This allowed him to put his artistic talents to practical use as a draughtsman, preparing blueprints for military architecture. In Canada, he also began courting Phyllis La France, a black Canadian woman living in Montreal, whom he had met earlier when she was in Trenton, New Jersey, visiting her aunt. The two were married at the Union Congregational Church by Reverend Charles H. Este on 27 December 1941.
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