American dancer, pianist and violinist, a recording artist, Broadway and Las Vegas star, film and TV actress, commercial spokesperson and author.
She was the daughter of a shipyard welder in a family of three brothers and one sister. She left home for the East Coast at 18 to work as a dancer. Later she went to Italy where she did a series of TV jobs, glamorous and popular. A bundle of beauty, grace and energy, she was a smash in Las Vegas, earning over $3 million a year for her 20 week gigs. For 33 years as a singer and dancer, she opened acts at the top clubs in Vegas and headlined in cabarets across the country.
Falana married singer Feliciano Tavares in the ’70s and divorced him after three years, saying that she was then “called to celibacy.” Though she was highly successful in her field, she began to have health problems so severe that she could not work. In mid-1979 she was partially paralyzed with multiple sclerosis. After recovery and rehab, she returned briefly to the Vegas stage on 6/30/1989.
One day in early 1990, Falana relates, “I was out driving when my car just pulled into the parking lot of a Catholic church. . . I went in and something inside of me said ‘Welcome home.'” With her disease stabilized, Falana began to spend several days each month speaking to church groups around the country and says she misses neither the bright lights or big paychecks.
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