Ask American Profile

Kim Perez, Jim Cantore, Jennifer Lopez, Buck Rambo, Julius LaRosa and the McGuire Sisters

I want to know about some of my favorite people on The Weather Channel. Jennifer Perez took off around the time of Bob Hope’s passing and memorials. A screen actor of the same name as Perez was pictured in the crowd. Is there any relation? Also, one of my favorite meteorologists is Jim Cantore. Is he married?
—R.D., Iowa

We’ve got some confusion here. The Weather Channel (TWC) features a meteorologist named Kim Perez, who recently took some time off. The Cincinnati native, who is blonde, was a meteorologist in the Air Force before joining TWC in 1995. Jennifer Lopez, who shares a name with the super-celebrity actress/singer, hasn’t taken any time off lately. She is not related to the other Jennifer Lopez, but does joke that her well-known name helps her get great tables when she makes dinner reservations. Originally from St. Augustine, Fla. (pop. 11,592), Lopez hosts TWC’s Evening Edition. And Jim Cantore, host of Storm Stories, is indeed married. He met his wife, Tamra, at TWC and they have two children. All three of the on-air personalities now make their home in Atlanta, where TWC is based.

Whatever happened to Buck Rambo, singer Dottie Rambo’s former husband? We care about Dottie, her songs, tapes and all of her health problems.
—James P., Washington

Buck Rambo and his current wife, Mae, are associate pastors at a Nashville, Tenn., church led by his daughter and son-in-law, Reba and Dony McGuire. The church ministers to residents of the inner city. Until recently, Buck would visit churches across the country to sing his gospel music and speak to the congregation. “I don’t travel anymore,” he says, “and we’re so busy with the church that I don’t sing much. I preach and I teach.” Though best known for his hits as a gospel singer in the 1960s and ’70s, Buck has always been involved in ministering churches. Born in Dawsons Spring, Ky., during the Depression, he began traveling and preaching at revival meetings in the early 1950s. He and Dottie Rambo married after meeting at a revival, when she was just 16. Reba was born a year and a half later, and started singing with her parents when she was just 3. Buck and Dottie divorced in the early 1990s. Dottie, whose health problems kept her away from singing for many years, recently released an album, Stand By The River.

Whatever happened to Julius LaRosa and the McGuire Sisters? I really enjoyed them on The Arthur Godfrey Show years ago.
—Carol A., Ohio

Many still remember the night that host Arthur Godfrey fired the smooth-crooning LaRosa live on television. Godfrey, who had given the unknown singer his start, was very controlling. When LaRosa hired a manager as his career grew, Godfrey took offense and, after LaRosa performed one night, announced, “That was Julie’s swan song.” That didn’t stop the Brooklyn, N.Y.-born singer from succeeding on his own with numerous hits. Godfrey hired him straight out of the Navy, so LaRosa says that after the show, “I went out and learned my job” by performing onstage. Now 73, LaRosa still performs, sticking to his hits and the pop standards that built his career. “Lyricists like Hammerstein, Mercer, Hart, Porter, Cahn, Burke, Harburg, and so many others were, essentially, poets,” he says. As for the McGuire Sisters—Dorothy, Phyllis and Christine—they stopped performing together in 1968. Phyllis launched a solo career, while Dorothy and Christine focused on their families. In 1985, when all three were visiting New York City, they were repeatedly stopped by fans who asked if they were singing together again. The three decided it was a good idea, and started touring again, ending their second run together three years ago.

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