At a club date in Reno, Nevada, in mid-1968, Rosemary Clooney stunned her audience by raging incoherently over the microphone before storming off. Her band was left to play her popular song “Come On-a My House” to an empty stage. “Nobody could approach me. I was like a hand grenade with the pin pulled,” Rosemary recalled. Later that night, she drove all the way from Reno to Lake Tahoe in the wrong lane, daring oncoming traffic to take her life.

Less than 20 years earlier, the performer’s warm, expressive voice made her a recording star with hits including “Tenderly,” “Half as Much,” “Botch-a-Me” and “Mambo Italiano.” She starred in several movie musicals, including the beloved holiday staple White Christmas with Bing Crosby in 1954. Changing tastes in music and Rosemary’s public meltdown — caused by the stress of showbiz, a bad marriage, alcohol and prescription drug abuse, and the singer’s horrific proximity to Robert Kennedy’s assassination — would derail her career. Fortunately, it was only a prelude to the performer’s triumphant final act. “She showed if you had resilience and a strong natural gift, you could overcome some enormous obstacles,” says Ken Crossland, co-author of Late Life Jazz: The Life and Career of Rosemary Clooney.