Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee, born Norma Deloris Egstrom on May 26, 1920, in Jamestown, North Dakota, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, actress, and Broadway performer whose career spanned seven decades. The seventh of eight children born to Selma Emele Egstrom and Marvin Olaf Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad, Lee grew up in several towns along the railroad line, including Nortonville and Wimbledon, where she graduated from Wimbledon High School in 1937. Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American; the family were Lutherans. After her mother's death when Lee was four, her father remarried Minnie Schaumberg Wiese.

Lee began singing professionally on KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota, in 1936, performing on local stations for small sums both during and after her high school years. In October 1937, radio personality Ken Kennedy of WDAY in Fargo auditioned her and put her on the air that same day, at which point he gave her the professional name Peggy Lee. In March 1938, at age seventeen, she left North Dakota for Hollywood, California, taking seasonal work as a short-order cook and waitress at Harry's Cafe on Balboa Island, Newport Beach, and later as a carnival barker at the Balboa Fun Zone. She later drew on that experience when she co-wrote the song "The Nickel Ride" with Dave Grusin for the 1974 film of the same name.

After returning to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy following a collapse onstage at The Jade in Hollywood, Lee was hired in 1939 to perform regularly at The Powers Hotel in Fargo and toured with both the Sev Olson and Will Osborne Orchestras while also broadcasting again at WDAY. When she returned to California in 1940, she took a singing engagement at The Doll House in Palm Springs, where she developed her signature understated vocal style by choosing to sing more softly rather than compete with noisy crowds. While performing there, she was introduced to Frank Bering, owner of the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago, who offered her a residency at the Buttery Room. Bandleader Benny Goodman heard her perform there and recruited her as a replacement for Helen Forrest. Lee joined the Benny Goodman Orchestra in August 1941, making her first recording singing "Elmer's Tune," and remained with the band for two years.

In 1942, Lee achieved her first top ten hit with "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place," followed in 1943 by "Why Don't You Do Right?," which sold more than one million copies. That same year she appeared with Goodman's orchestra in the films Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl. In March 1943, she married Dave Barbour, a guitarist in Goodman's band, after which Goodman dismissed Barbour and Lee resigned as well. She began recording for Capitol Records in 1944, producing a string of hits co-written with Barbour, including "I Don't Know Enough About You" and "It's a Good Day." Their collaboration "Mañana" spent nine weeks at the top of the charts, remained on the charts for twenty-one weeks in total, sold more than one million copies, and earned the Top Disc Jockey Record of the Year award from Billboard magazine. Her recording of "Golden Earrings" was a hit throughout 1947 and 1948, and from 1946 to 1949 she also recorded Capitol's electrical transcriptions for radio station use.

In 1948, Lee joined Perry Como and Jo Stafford as a host of the NBC Radio musical program The Chesterfield Supper Club. She was a regular on The Jimmy Durante Show and appeared frequently on Bing Crosby's radio programs during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Her relationship with Capitol spanned nearly three decades, aside from a period between 1952 and 1956 at Decca Records, for which she recorded Black Coffee and had hit singles including "Lover" and "Mister Wonderful." In 1958, she recorded her own arrangement of "Fever," originally by Little Willie John, adding new lyrics to the song. Her version was nominated in three categories at the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Beyond her recording career, Lee contributed significantly to film. She voiced multiple characters in the 1955 Walt Disney animated feature Lady and the Tramp, including Darling, Peg, and the Siamese cats, and received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 1955 film Pete Kelly's Blues. Over the course of her career she recorded more than 1,100 masters and co-wrote more than 270 songs.

Lee also brought her talents to the Broadway stage. In 1983 she appeared on Broadway in Peg, for which she also served as book writer. Originally from Jamestown, North Dakota, Lee died on January 21, 2002.