The McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters: Ruby Christine McGuire (July 30, 1926 – December 28, 2018; Dorothy "Dottie" McGuire (February 13, 1928 – September 7, 2012); Phyllis Jean McGuire (February 14, 1931 – December 29, 2020). Among their most popular songs are "Sincerely" and "Sugartime", both number-one hits. The McGuire sisters were born to Asa and Lillie (Fultz) McGuire in Middletown, Ohio, and grew up in Miamisburg near Dayton. Their mother, Lillie, was a minister of the Miamisburg First Church of God, where, as children, they sang in church at weddings, funerals, and revivals. When they started singing in 1935, the youngest sister, Phyllis, was four years old. Eventually, they sang at occasions outside church, and by 1949 were singing at military bases and veterans' hospitals, performing a more diverse repertoire than they had in church. The McGuire Sisters signed with Coral Records in 1952. In the same year, they appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, and Godfrey hired them for his other shows, where they remained for seven years. The November 1953 issue of Cosmopolitan called them "Godfrey's Merry McGuires". The sisters often were compared to the Andrews Sisters. Maxene Andrews said in an interview with Joe Franklin on WOR (AM) radio in 1979, "The McGuire Sisters were fine once they stopped imitating the Andrews Sisters." While working on the Godfrey show, the McGuires befriended singer Lu Ann Simms and attended her wedding to music publisher Loring Buzzell in July 1956.[6] Buzzell's music publishing firm, Hecht-Lancaster Buzzell Music (co-owned by Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster) provided two songs for the McGuire Sisters, "May You Always", which became the best-selling 45 and sheet music of 1959, and "Theme from The Unforgiven (The Need for Love)", which became another big hit in 1960. The McGuire Sisters were the Mystery Guests on the May 29, 1955 airing of What's My Line? Fred Allen guessed who they were. In 1958, their mother appeared as a guest challenger on the television game show To Tell the Truth. In December 1958 they appeared and performed as themselves in Season 4, Episode 11 of The Phil Silvers Show, "Bilko Presents the McGuire Sisters".