Peggy Lee

Famous singer. Peggy Lee Born Norma Deloris Egstrom May 26, 1920 Jamestown, North Dakota, U.S. Died January 21, 2002 (aged 81) Los Angeles, California, U.S. Resting place Ashes buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Westwood, Los Angeles, U.S. Known for vocals, recordings, acting. The Jazz Tree Disney's Lady and the Tramp Spouse(s) Dave Barbour (m. 1943; div. 1951) Brad Dexter (m. 1953; div. 1953) Dewey Martin (m. 1956; div. 1958) Jack Del Rio (m. 1964; div. 1965) Children 1 Parent(s) Marvin Olof Egstrom Selma Amelia Anderson Musical career Origin Valley City, North Dakota Genres Jazz popular Occupation(s) Singer - songwriter - actress - composer Instrument: Vocals Years active 1941–2000 Labels Capitol - Decca - Atlantic - A&M Polydor Associated acts Benny Goodman Laurindo Almeida Harold Arlen Sonny Burke Cy Coleman Duke Ellington Dave Grusin Quincy Jones Francis Lai Jack Marshall Johnny Mandel Marian McPartland Willard Robison Lalo Schifrin Victor Young Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music. Early life Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota on May 26, 1920, the seventh of the eight children of Selma Amelia (née Anderson) Egstrom and Marvin Olof Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad. She and her family were Lutherans. Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American. After her mother died when Lee was four, her father married Minnie Schaumberg Wiese. Lee first sang professionally over KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She later had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her salary in food. Both during and after her high school years, Lee sang for small sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy, of WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota (the most widely heard station in North Dakota), changed her name to Peggy Lee.[6] Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17. She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy, and was later noticed by hotel owner Frank Bering while working at the Doll House in Palm Springs, California. It was here that she developed her trademark sultry purr, having decided to compete with the noisy crowd with subtlety rather than volume. Bering offered her a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel East in Chicago. There, she was noticed by bandleader Benny Goodman. According to Lee, "Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into The Buttery, and she was very impressed. So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest. And although I didn't know, I was it. He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing." She joined his band in 1941 and stayed for two years. Recording career In 1942 Lee had her first No. 1 hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place", followed in 1943 by "Why Don't You Do Right?", which sold more than one million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodman's orchestra in two 1943 films, Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl.