Nancy Ames | |
|---|---|
 Ames in 1964 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Nancy Hamilton Alfaro |
| Born | September 30, 1937 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Vocalist, songwriter |
Nancy Ames (born Nancy Hamilton Alfaro on September 30, 1937) 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.[1][2]
Ames was born in Washington, D.C., the granddaughter of Ricardo Joaquín Alfaro, who served as President of Panama from 1931 to 1932 and who in 1949 was chairman of the legal committee of the Third session of the United Nations General Assembly that drew up the text of the Convention on Genocide.[2][3]
The daughter of a physician, she grew up in Washington. She attended Holton-Arms School and Bennett College, both of them for girls. By 1964, she was married to Romanian hypnotist Triaian Boyer. By 1968, they had divorced.[4] After the divorce, she married Jay Riviere, a golf course designer. They had one child, a daughter, Nancy, but ultimately divorced.[5] Ames has resided in Houston, Texas since 1972.[6] She and her third husband Danny Ward are the co-founders of Ward & Ames Special Events.[7]
A folk singer with a partially Latin repertoire, Ames was signed to Liberty Records. Her first single was entitled "Bonsoir Cher" (backed with "Cu Cu Rru Cu Cu Paloma").[8][9]
She broke the top 100 twice in 1966; "He Wore the Green Beret" (by Frank Catana and Peg Barsella) b/w "War is a Card Game" (by Pamela Polland), her answer song to Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Berets", hit number 89 before falling to 96, and later in the year "Cry Softly" also placed in the charts.[10][11]
She had a TV show which aired on KPRC-TV Channel 2 (the Houston area NBC affiliate) from 1972-1977. 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.
She had occasional acting appearances. She had appearances as two different characters in sketches on the The Red Skelton Hour in 1966 and 1967; the latter role was in a hippie themed sketch. Also in 1968 she had an acting appearance as "Louise Hahn" in a first season episode of The Name of the Game, an NBC drama.
In the late 1970s, Ames moved to Houston, Texas. In 1982 she and her third husband, Danny Ward, founded Ward & Ames, an events and video-production firm.[12] Ames is also the co-founder of the Plumeria Society of America, and owned the jewelry company Alfaro, A Nancy Ames Collection.[13]
