York Town Square

Georgjean Fells, known in her performing days with the Quintones as Jeannie Crist, died recently. Her death comes two years after fellow York, Pa., group member, Phyllis A. Carr, passed away. Background posts: The Oaks in York: ‘I often look up there … and think about how nice it was’, York Soul group Magnificent Men come to age on big screen and York’s Sovereign Stadium will be site of The Oaks music reunion.

Doo-Woppers The Quintones, from William Penn High School and York, Pa., drew national attention in the late 1950s with their “Down the Aisle of Love.”
Their hit reached No. 18 on Billboard and sold almost a million copies.
They played on American Bandstand.
They performed at the Apollo Theater.
Their hit became a well-known song at weddings… .

But they disbanded at the beginning of the 1960s, and relatively few people around York County remember their day in the sun.
Those who acquainted group member Georgjean Fells – Jeannie Crist, as she’s known to history – knew about her accomplishments. And those on the Web. Just google the name Quintones (or Quin-Tones).
Georgjean died recently at the Colonial Manor nursing home in York, a long way from the spotlight.
“She had a gentleness to her,” daughter Kimberly Boulding said. “She kept to herself.”
Here’s the York Daily Record Sunday News obituary story (5/9/08):

By the time she was 20, Georgjean Fells had a hit song and had performed on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and at the Apollo Theater.
She could count among her friends other doo-wop performers such as Little Richard and Jerry Butler of The Impressions, said her daughter, Kimberly Boulding of York.
Later in life, however, Fells preferred simple, quiet times, Boulding said. Fells, 69, died Sunday at Colonial Manor Nursing and Rehab Center.
Fells, who was known as Jeanne or Jeannie, was a second soprano in The Quintones, a group whose members hailed from William Penn Senior High School. In 1958, their single “Down the Aisle of Love” peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard charts.
“She was very proud of her singing career,” Boulding said.
When The Quintones went on tour in their younger days, Boulding said, the group’s other members had to look after her mother.
“The group would have to shelter her a lot because she was too trusting,” Boulding said.
Boulding said her mother loved to travel and made sure her three children went sightseeing during family trips, including a road trip to California.
What Fells enjoyed most was the simple pleasures in life: flowers, gardening, cooking and watching butterflies, her daughter said.
“She had a gentleness to her,” Boulding said. “She kept to herself.”