Margaret Louie Kenyon obit

Margaret Louie Kenyon Has Died 

She was not on the list.

Margaret Louie Kenyon, one of the four Kim Loo Sisters, passed away peacefully on July 14th. She would have been 98 years old this November. Even as we, her family and friends, mourn her passing, we celebrate her long life, her warm heart, her generous spirit, and her contributions to American music, stage and screen.

Together with her siblings Alice and Bubbles, she joined the USO and shipped out with the fleet to entertain American and Allied troops stationed in Europe during WWII.  Here's how she describes herself as a child in Minneapolis, MN in JUST US GIRLS, the companion book to THE KIM LOO SISTERS documentary: "Basically, I was a tomboy when I was a little girl.  Mama’s clothesline in the backyard ran along the underside of a metal rail; I would climb up onto that rail and walk across it like I was a tightrope walker. Even then I wanted to be a performer—a circus performer! I also liked to climb trees. I had a lot of boys as friends—not boyfriends.  I used to hang out with the fellas under the street lamp, jawin’." Maggie also preferred to be called 'Peggy,' which no one called her. She passed away a few months shy of her 98th birthday and like the other Kimmies, all of whom lived into their mid- to late nineties, she lived a long, vibrant and full life. Maggie/Peggy will be missed.

Alice, Maggie, Jenée and Bubbles were born to Louie Shear Gim and Michelena “Lena” Louie (née Wojcik) in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St Paul), Minnesota. Their father was Chinese from Guangzhou (Canton), Guangdong. Their mother was Polish from Buczacz, Poland, now Buchach, Ukraine. Lena had two more children—son Lowell and daughter Nerée.

The sisters were “discovered” by Paul Whiteman (“King of Jazz”) and his Orchestra. Together with their mother and two youngest siblings, they became the family act Louie’s Chinese Revue.

Combining singing, dancing and acrobatics, Louie’s Chinese Revue traveled with the vaudeville circuits west of their new base, Chicago: Orpheum, Pantages, Fox and Paramount.

After Lowell and Nerée returned home to the Twin Cities to finish their schooling. Lena concentrated on her four oldest—Alice, Maggie, Jenée and Bubbles who reinvented themselves as the Kim Loo Sisters. They sang a new style of music—swing—that was sweeping the country.

The sisters started out as a jazz vocal quartet in all-Chinese revues with other Chinese and Chinese-American entertainers, including Toy and Wing and Joe Wong. Their big break came when Broadway impresario George White hired them for his last Broadway musical revue, The Scandals of 1939, which opened at the Alvin Theater in New York. Other performers included comedians The Three Stooges and Ben Blue and singer Ella Logan.

The hit of the show was the “Mexiconga.” The four sisters each played a bongo drum and pounded out a different rhythm for Ann Miller’s call-and-response tap dance number.

Bolstered by the success of the Scandals, which ran on Broadway and toured for three years, the sisters made New York City their home.

Alice, Maggie and Bubbles returned to Broadway where they shared top billing with crooner Frank Sinatra in the all-star revue, Cavalcade of America. They appeared with Jackie Gleason in “Hellzapoppin” at the Shubert Theatre, and with Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy in “Hollywood Sweater Girl Revue” at the Edison Hotel. They also performed at the iconic Astor Roof at the Astor Hotel in New York, following Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the sisters entertained American servicemen in United Service Organization (USO) camp shows across the country. They also joined Ina Ray Hutton and her Orchestra, a female-led all-male big band.

The Kim Loo Sisters made the transition from stage to screen with the Hollywood feature film “Meet Miss Bobby Socks” (1944). The sisters also starred in two Soundies—“Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1943) and “Gee! The Jeep Jumps” (1944). The latter was selected by the Library of Congress for their film archive.