Residents of the tiny Pittsburgh suburb of McDonald, Pa., want to honor songwriter Jay Livingston, co-writer of the popular Christmas song "Silver Bells," with a historic marker at his boyhood home.

Livingston was born Jacob Harold Levinson in 1915 and stayed in McDonald, which had been a booming oil town, through high school.

Local historian Blanche Slates said Livingston's signature tune, which describes a downtown Christmas shopping scene, almost had a different name.

Livingston and his partner, Ray Evans, wrote several songs and movie scores including "Mona Lisa" from the 1950 movie "Captain Carey USA" and "Silver Bells" — the duo's biggest seller — which first appeared in the 1951 Bob Hope movie "The Lemon Drop Kid."

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Livingston died at age 86 in 2001.

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