05/18/2026
⚜️ The Connick’s - Harry Connick Jr. Remembers the Mom he lost at an early age ⚜️
⭐️ Harry Connick Jr., 56 - The Early Years ⭐️
🎹 His passion for jazz began early. There’s a video of Harry dancing at a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans when he was about 2.
🎙️ At the age of 3 he started playing the family piano.
✨ Harry remembers:
🎹 Before I was born, my parents owned a record shop called Studio A.
🎙️ They both loved music and ran the store for a few years while they put themselves through law school.
🎹 When I was little, we lived on 20th Street in the Lakeview section of the city.
🏠 Our house was a modest 1,500-square-foot, one-story, redbrick ranch with an asphalt roof.
🎹 There were three bedrooms, so my older sister, Suzanna, me and my parents each had our own room.
🌀 Hurricane Katrina destroyed the house in 2005.
🏠 It was torn down soon after.
🎹 My parents met in Casablanca, Morocco, after World War II.
🎙️ My mom, Anita, originally was from New York, and my dad, Harry, was from Mobile, Ala.
🎹 My father was there with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and my mother worked for an insurance company.
🎙️ After they married in Morocco in 1953, they moved to New Orleans, where they ended up going to law school.
❤️ My parents were as committed to my passion for music as they were to their own careers.
🎹 They never stood in my way or demanded I follow them into law.
🎙️ I wasn’t smart enough to do that anyway, and they knew it.
💙 Music is all I ever wanted to do or could do.
🎹 I started taking piano lessons and playing concerts at about age 5.
🎙️ When I was 10, my mom got sick with ovarian cancer. I didn’t quite understand what was going on.
❤️ I just assumed she would get better.
🎹 She would tell me every day before school, “Be a leader.”
🎙️ At 10, I had no idea what she was talking about.
💙 But I made sure I was first in line in school at lunchtime.
🎹 She laughed when I told her I was the leader on line.
🎙️ She then patiently explained that she wanted me always to try to do the right thing and set an example for others. “That’s a leader,” she said.
💔 Mom died when I was 13.
🎹 I had a ton of trouble adjusting to my new reality.
🎙️ To this day, my mom’s passing is the most difficult thing I’ve had to endure emotionally.
💙 In high school, I began acting in musicals, such as “Anything Goes” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”
🎹 When we did “Guys and Dolls,” I was sure I’d get the Sky Masterson role.
🎙️ Instead, I was cast as Harry the Horse.
❤️ The teacher later told me that he saw how much I loved performing and was afraid I’d be there around the clock and flunk out of school.
🎹 He knew me well.
🎙️ When I was 14, I auditioned for an intensive afternoon program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.
💙 I was accepted and took piano lessons with Ellis Marsalis, the father of Branford and Wynton.
🎹 In high school, I nearly flunked out.
🎙️ Looking back, I think I had attention-deficit disorder.
❤️ I clearly was a different kind of learner.
🎹 The schools weren’t set up to deal with individual learning styles.
🎙️ After high school, I was ready to move to New York to pursue my music career.
💙 Dad asked me to give college a chance.
🎹 I did, for a single semester at Loyola University.
🎙️ I really tried. I just wasn’t a good student.
❤️ I left for New York in 1986. George Butler, the A&R director of jazz for Columbia Records, had heard about me.
🎹 He told me to call him when I came to New York.
🎙️ So I did, every single day for six months.
💙 Finally, he got tired of me calling and signed me in 1987. That was my start.
💖 Final Thoughts on his Mom:
💕 My mother loved to draw.
💖 Among my most precious possessions are a couple of her pencil-line drawings.
💕 They hang in my home and keep an eye on me.
💖 I think of my mom as someone who never patronized me, as someone who made me feel like I was the smartest, most capable and talented person in the world.
💕 I miss her greatly.
⭐️ Article by: Marc Myers ⭐️
❤️ Photo by: Unknown ❤️
