Debbie Harry
Harry in 2008, photo by Prphotos
Birth Name: Angela Tremble
Place of Birth: Miami, Florida, U.S.
Date of Birth: July 1, 1945
Ethnicity: Scottish, English, possibly other
Debbie Harry (Deborah Ann Harry) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is the leader of the popular punk rock band Blondie. Her film roles include Union City, Videodrome, Hairspray, Body Bags, Heavy, and Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.
Debbie’s biological mother was a respected concert pianist, but she did not feel ready to bring up a child. Debbie was adopted by Catherine Allen (Peters) and Richard Smith Harry, from New Jersey. She has said that she inherited her biological mother’s musical talent.
Debbie’s birth surname, Tremble, can be Scottish or English.
About her biological parents, Debbie has said:
I found out a small bit of information…I don’t know how much of it is credible. Today, it’s much better. You get to know exactly who your parents were, what they were like, medical history. After a certain point, you have to let it go. What’s the point?… I looked into reaching out to my mother, but it didn’t work out. It wasn’t possible.
Richard Harry was the son of Thomas Fox Harry and Clara Belle Smith.
Catherine Harry was the daughter of Franklin Allen Peters and Carolyn Van Winkle.
Debbie’s biological maternal grandfather likely was Robert P. Trimble. Robert was born in Scotland.
Debbie’s biological maternal grandmother likely was Goldie R. Havens (the daughter of John Winfield Havens and Harriet/Hattie E. Wilbur). Goldie was born in New Jersey.
Source: Debbie’s likely biological maternal grandmother, Goldie R. Havens, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Northern Ireland is where I’ve heard Trimble & Catholic. Maybe Ulster Scots but integrated with Catholics.
Using details from Debbie Harry’s book ‘Face It’, I did some investigating.
Debbie claims that her birth parents met about 1930, in high school, near Lakewood and Neptune, NJ. Lakewood and Neptune are only a mile apart but in different counties. I checked for Tremble families with a high school-aged daughter in 1930. I found a Trimble, not Tremble, family in Neptune, that of Goldie (Havens) Trimble and her daughters Frances (19) and Mary (17). Goldie is divorced. In 1940, she’s still living with Mary, now Mary Scholes, who is also divorced. Goldie had married Robert P. Trimble in 1910. Robert was born in 1885 in… Scotland. It looks like he and Goldie separated pretty fast, as she’s living with her parents in 1915, with their two young daughters.
Interestingly, Goldie was living in Pinellas, Florida in 1945 — the same year Debbie/Angela was born. Is this why Debbie was born in Florida and not in NJ? One of Goldie’s daughters moved in with her to give birth far from the prying eyes of their neighbors?
Eleventh census of the state of Florida, 1945; (Microfilm series S 1371, 43 reels); Record Group 001021; State Library and Archives of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida.
Also in her memoir, Debbie states that her birth mother was nursing her (Debbie’s) grandmother, who was dying of breast cancer. That plus single motherhood is a lot of pressure. According to Debbie, she was placed for adoption and her biological grandmother died before the year (1945) was out. Goldie Trimble died in August 1945.
The aforementioned Robert P. Trimble remarried after he and Goldie divorced, but his other children were very young in 1930. Too young to be high school sweethearts with anyone.
Both her biological parents had Scottish last names, Trimble and McKenzie. I don’t see any anything Jewish.
Yes my in-laws are Ashkenazi jews and lots of stars in Hollywood are also. You are not the only one familiar with them.
Trimble is an English surname not Scottish
It peaks in Ulster tbh.
Tbh, the “Scots” in Ulster Scots is often overplayed. A lot of the settlers came from the ethnically mixed Scottish-English border region, where they were just as likely to be English and Scottish. “Trimble” is an name of English origin.
Yes but as I said “Trimble” peaks in Ulster and most US descendants have to be ancestry from there.