Peggy Lee

American singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist. Well known and loved, she has appeared on more than 500 records and has played in numerous supper clubs. Also appearing in TV and movies, Lee received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for "Pete Kelly's Blues" a 1955 jazz saga. Considered a jazz legend, she was dubbed "the Queen" by Duke Ellington. In 1970 she won a Grammy for "Is That All There Is?" Her other classic songs include "Manana," "Fever," "I'm a Woman" and "Where Can I Go Without You?" She is one of the few who have remained a salable artist for over four decades.

Peggy was four when her mother died. Her father, a railroad station-agent, began wandering and she was given over to the care of a stepmother who "poured boiling water on my hands when I did dishes and used the metal end of the razor strap for beatings."

After high school Lee escaped to Fargo, ND where she heard the new sounds on the radio: "race music" from Chicago. The radio program director at WDAY in Fargo auditioned her, changed her name to Peggy Lee and put her on "Hayloft Jamboree" as Freckle-Faced Gertie. After that she toured with bands, worked concessions at a California carnival and landed a job singing in a Palm Springs jazz club, The Doll House. Her career was launched by the tune Benny Goodman arranged for her "Why Don't You Do Right?" but fame almost faded when she married Goodman's handsome guitarist, Dave Barbour, in 1943. She turned down offers to sing in favor of domesticity until Barbour's self-destructive drinking strained the relationship, especially after their daughter Nicki was born.

Three husbands followed, two actors and a bandleader - all were short lived marriages. In 1965, 13 years after their divorce, she was about to get back together with Barbour who'd stayed sober since their break-up, but before it could happen he died of a heart attack.