11/6/74: After an appearance at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, she was raped at knifepoint at the Howard Johnson Motel where she was staying. She subsequently sued the hotel chain for failing to provide adequate security when she learned that a year after the rape occurred, the broken lock to her former room had never been repaired. She was awarded a reported $3 million.
1958" She earned her first million dollars, topped polls for Favorite Female Singer and received 5,000 fan letters a week.
1961: Singer Allan Chase released a vinyl 45 record titled "I'm In Love With Miss Connie Francis", backed with the song "Lonely Heart". The song gushes over her, often using titles of her songs in the lyrics.
1967" She was voted Best Female Singer in Las Vegas.
7/3/63: She played a Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth II at the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland.
According to a broadcast on the A&E Biography channel, singer Elvis Presley attended one of her concerts and had to leave for emotional reasons once he heard her sing the song "Mama" as his mother had just recently died. The next day Elvis sent Connie two dozen yellow roses with a note apologizing for his abrupt exit.
As a child she was asked by her father if she would rather have piano or accordion lessons. Since her father was an accordion player and often played to her, she chose the accordion, a decision she said she has come to regret.
Close friend of Kaye Stevens and Neil Sedaka.
Dubbed Jayne Mansfield's singing in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958).
Her first national appearance was on "Talent Scouts" (1948).
One of the guests shown on the episode of "This Is Your Life" (1952) spotlighting Connie was her fourth-grade teacher. Connie said that she always appreciated her support over the years, as the teacher she had the year previous told her that she'd never make it.
Received a scholarship to study nursing after high school.
She and ex-husband Joseph Garzilli adopted a son, Joseph Garzilli Jr.(born 1974).
She did not learn to drive until she was in her 20s.
She has appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") a total of 26 times.
She has been trying to promote a possible follow-up movie to her 1960s hit Where the Boys Are (1960) since the early 1980s titled "Where The Men Are".
She originally did not want to sing her first smash hit, "Who's Sorry Now", since it was originally written in the 1930s. Her father convinced her otherwise.
She previously dated singer Bobby Darin, who quickly ended the relationship once her father ran him off from one of her shows with a pistol.
She was nominated for the 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame for her contributions to Arts and Entertainment.
She was not allowed to attend her high school prom by her parents but was permitted to attend her school's weekly chaperoned "Beehive" dances.