Lonnie Burr was born on May 31, 1944, in Dayton, Kentucky, and would one day become one of the original Mouseketeers, starting on the show in the first season. When he was three years old, his family moved to Highland Park, California. Lonnie attended the Hollywood Professional School from first through twelfth grades, even while he was working as a child actor. In fact, the school was a private school for kids who were working in show business.

Lonnie’s parents were Howard Ambrose Babin and Dorothy Doloris Burr and were a nightclub act and vaudeville dance team who toured the country from 1934 to 1941. Their act was called “Dot and Dash.” Through his parents, Lonnie is of Danish, French, German, and Scots-Irish descent...

Lowrey Lynn Ready was born on December 3, 1944, in Dallas, Texas. His parents were Robert and Myrtle Ready. When he was still a young child, Lynn started taking singing and dancing lessons and quickly began winning amateur contests in the Dallas and Ft. Worth areas. Lynn always went by his middle name in his professional work, even as a child performer. As his local fame increased, he sang on local radio and TV shows, even as young as three years old. Later, he learned to play the piano and the steel guitar and became quite proficient with them.

Lynn’s first professional, as opposed to amateur, performance was in February of 1957 on a local TV show produced in Dallas. The show was called The Curt Massey Show. Not long after performing on this show, Lynn attended a regional audition for replacement Mouseketeers for the third season of The Mickey Mouse Club. Lynn was hired for this position and became the only Mouseketeer whose family wasn’t already living in California when he was brought on board the show...