Nancy Ames | |
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Ames in 1964.
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Background information | |
Birth name | Nancy Hamilton Alfaro |
Born | 1937 Washington, DC |
Occupation(s) | Vocalist Songwriter |
Nancy Ames (born 1937 as Nancy Hamilton Alfaro) is an American folk singer and songwriter. She regularly appeared on the American version of the television series That Was the Week That Was. The TW3 Girl, as she was known, sang the show theme and special material.
She was born in Washington, DC. She is the granddaughter of Ricardo Joaquín Alfaro (1882–1971), who served as President of Panama from 1931 to 1932. The daughter of a physician, she grew up in Washington. She attended Holton Arms College and Bennett College, both of them for girls. By 1964 she was married to Romanian hypnotist Triaian Boyer. By 1968, they had divorced. After the divorce, she married Jay Riviere, a golf course designer. Ames has resided in Houston, Texas since 1972. She and her husband Danny Ward are the co-founders of Ward and Ames Special Events.
A folk singer with a partially Latin repertoire, she was signed to Liberty Records; her first album was entitled Cu Cu Rru Cu Cu La Paloma. She broke the top 100 twice in 1966; "He Wore the Green Beret," her answer song to Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Berets," hit number 89, and later in the year "Cry Softly" also placed in the charts.
She had a TV show which aired on KPRC-TV Channel 2 (the Houston area NBC affiliate) from 1972-77. She is listed as the co-writer of the theme song to The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour with Mason Williams per Williams' own 1969 LP entitled Music by Mason Williams. Ames and Williams also co-wrote "Cinderella Rockefella," an international pop hit in 1968.