History

The McGuire sisters were born in Middletown, Ohio and grew up in Miamisburg where their mother, Lillie, was an ordained minister of the Miamisburg First Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) and let them sing in the church as young girls. They sang at weddings, funerals, and church revivals. When they started in 1935, the youngest sister, Phyllis, was only four years old. Eventually, they sang on other occasions than church-related ones; by 1949, they were singing at military bases and veterans' hospitals. They incorporated a more diverse repertoire for these, extending themselves to more than the hymns they had sung at church.