Marion Hutton Schoen, Singer With Glenn Miller, Dies at 67

Marion Hutton Schoen, a one-time lead singer with the Glenn Miller Orchestra who dedicated the last two decades of her life to helping women alcoholics, died of cancer Saturday at her home in Kirkland, Wash. She was 67.

She joined Miller’s band in 1939 and was the lead vocalist until Miller joined the Army Air Corps in World War II. She later recorded for Armed Services Radio and MGM records, singing such tunes as “Kalamazoo,” “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” and “Moonlight Serenade.”

Mrs. Schoen was the sister of singer-actress Betty Hutton.

Perry Como, Bob Hope and Jack Carson were among the personalities she performed with on stage. She also appeared in a string of motion pictures with comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, the Marx Brothers and singer Donald O’Connor.

She retired from show business in 1954 after marrying composer and bandleader Victor Schoen. An alcoholic addicted to prescription drugs, Mrs. Schoen underwent treatment nine years later and then began helping other women alcoholics, setting up prison treatment programs and serving on the boards of various programs.

In 1981, she helped establish Residence XII, a treatment center in Kirkland, Wash., and two years later, she became its executive director. During the last few years of her life, she raised money for the center by staging benefit performances and made frequent radio and television appearances to discuss the plight of women alcoholics.

Mrs. Schoen is survived by her husband, three sons and her sister.