McGuire, 84, died on Friday at her home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, her son Rex Williamson told Reuters. She had suffered for some time from Parkinson's disease, he said.

Dorothy McGuire was the middle sister of The McGuire Sisters - Christine, Phyllis and Dorothy - who had hits with "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite", "Sincerely" and "Sugartime" and were often compared to their 1940s predecessors, The Andrews Sisters.

They began their careers as children, singing in their Miamisburg, Ohio, church and later at hospitals and military bases before singing a record deal in 1952.

Often dressed in identical outfits and hairstyles, they were frequent guests on television variety shows and they later performed for US Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Some 18 years after they retired in 1968, they reunited and played the hotel and nightclub circuit in Las Vegas and New York until the mid-1990s. The McGuire Sisters were inducted in the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 1994.

Dorothy is survived by siblings Phyllis and Christine.