Susannah McCorkle, a silken-voiced jazz vocalist and mainstay of the city's cabaret scene, apparently jumped to her death early yesterday from her upper West Side Manhattan apartment. She was 55. McCorkle, who performed in clubs and concert halls throughout the country, was found lifeless in front of her building at W. 86th St. at 3:45 a.m., police said.
In her bright, orderly apartment, she had set out a will and other legal papers, along with instructions to scatter her ashes in Central Park, and to make sure someone cared for her two Angora cats, according to a police source.
The apparent suicide of the critically acclaimed McCorkle, who survived breast cancer, shocked her friends and music industry associates.
“I knew she was upset in her personal life, but I didn't think she'd do anything like this," said her publicist, Bryan Utman, crying.
McCorkle, a statuesque singer with a trademark pixie haircut, was described as cerebral as well as sensuous, whether performing romantic Gershwin standards or singing
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