Boxing Day Books has published its first book

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PRINCETON — Move over, New York! The Illinois Valley has a new publishing company.

Boxing Day Books, located in Princeton, was founded by Paula Morrow, longtime editor of Ladybug and Babybug magazines and Cricket Books at Carus Publishing in Peru.

Ron McCutchan, former senior art director at Cricket magazine and Cricket Books, is the new company’s designer, and Bob Morrow, previously a reporter for the Peoria Journal-Star, is publicist and marketing director.

The company’s first book is a fascinating and extensive biography, “Say It with Music: The Life and Legacy of Jane Froman” by Barbara Seuling.

Paula had served as editor for a number of books by noted children’s author Barbara Seuling. When Seuling mentioned in 2006 that she was looking for a publisher for her 15-year “labor of love” manuscript, Boxing Day Books was born.

McCutchan, in addition to designing the overall look of the volume, created the eye-catching cover and prepared layouts to include more than 100 photographs, many never before published.

The book was released in November in Columbia, Mo., hometown of Froman, during a three-day celebration of what would have been Froman’s 100th birthday. Festivities included events at the Univer-sity of Missouri, Columbia College and the Boone County Historical Society.

In addition to the book release, highlights of the weekend included the DVD release of “With a Song in My Heart,” the 1952 movie portraying Froman’s remarkable comeback after suffering near-fatal injuries in an airplane crash while on her way to entertain GIs in Europe during World War II.

Author Seuling was a charter member of “The Fromanettes,” a group of teen fans who in 1953 gathered every Saturday on the stoop of Froman’s New York City brownstone. Over the years, the singer and Seuling developed a close friendship that endured until Froman’s death in 1980.

Jane Froman’s silken voice and the Golden Age of Radio in the 1930s were synonymous. She was classically trained for a career in opera but chose instead to apply her incredible three-octave range to the popular music of contemporary composers such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Jerome Kern.

Acknowledged as the most popular female singer of her time, Froman was the first entertainer to volunteer for the newly formed USO (United Service Organization). In early 1943, the airplane carrying Froman and 38 others crashed in the Tagus River while approaching Lisbon, Portugal. Only 15 people survived, including Froman, whose right arm and both legs were nearly severed, in addition to crushed ribs and a broken pelvis.

The movie “With a Song in My Heart,” starring Susan Hayward as Jane Froman, chronicled the singer’s indomitable spirit and amazing comeback. Hayward lip-synched to Froman’s voice on the audio. In real life, Froman returned to Europe in 1945, traveling thousands of miles to sing for more than 30,000 GIs from a wheelchair or supported by crutches.

Froman’s life was in equal parts fairy tale romance and gritty unforgiving realism. Five years after the near-fatal crash, she divorced her first husband and manager, vaudevillian Don Ross, to marry John Burn, a copilot of the doomed airplane. Burn had held her head above the icy waters off Lisbon for an hour before the two were rescued.

The movie about her life resulted in a resurgence of Froman’s career. She hosted her own television show on CBS for several years and remained an immensely popular night club singer until she retired to Columbia, Mo., in 1960. By then a total of 39 separate surgeries on her broken body, an addiction to pain killers, and alcohol had driven Froman and her storybook lover apart.

After her retirement, Froman married a Columbia hometown boy she had known in college, newspaper editor Rowland Smith, and devoted herself to a number of worthy causes. She enjoyed visits from “her children,” the Fromanettes, until her death in 1980.

“Say It with Music” is available online at: www.boxingdaybooks.com and locally at Green River Books on Main Street in Princeton and at Common Ground BookCafe at 723 S. Clark St. in Utica.