Famous Half-Jews: Carly Simon

[Gary Freedman]

Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work.

She is the former wife of another notable singer-songwriter, James Taylor, with whom she has two children: Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor and Ben Taylor, who are also musicians.

Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

Simon was born in New York City, New York. Her father, of Jewish descent, was Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster), a pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. Her mother was Andrea Louise Simon (née Heinemann), a civil rights activist and singer of German and Spanish descent. In a 2004 interview with journalist Michael Kors for the July issue of Interview Magazine Simon revealed her full ancestry as being Jewish, Black, Cuban and French, becoming evident that her Spanish mother was of German, Cuban and Black ancestry.

Carly was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City and has two older sisters, Joanna (b. 1940) and Lucy (b. 1943), and a younger brother, Peter Simon (b. 1947). Simon, her sisters and brother Peter, were raised nominal Catholics according to a book of photography Peter published in the late '90s. She attended Riverdale Country School. She also briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College and joined Alpha Gamma Delta, before she dropped out to pursue music.