THE US: Peggy Lee, regarded by many critics as the greatest white jazz singer, has died in her California home, aged 81. The singer-composer's smoky, insinuating voice in such songs as Fever made her a legend. She died from a heart attack at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, her daughter, Nicki Lee Foster said.
Lee repeatedly battled injury and ill health, including heart trouble, in a spectacular career that brought her a Grammy, an Oscar nomination and sold-out concerts worldwide.
During more than 50 years in showbusiness, which began during a troubled childhood and endured through four broken marriages, she recorded hit songs with the Benny Goodman band, wrote songs for a Disney movie and starred on Broadway in a short-lived autobiographical show, Peg. She was considered in the same league as Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith.
Her hits touched generations of listeners. Lee's more notable recordings included Why Don't You Do Right?; I'm a Woman, Lover, Pass Me By; I'm Gonna Go Fishin' and Big Spender. The hit Is That All There Is? won her a Grammy for best contemporary female vocal performance in 1969.
Jazz critic Leonard Feather once remarked: "If you don't feel a thrill when Peggy Lee sings, you're dead, Jack."
She was born Norma Egstrom on May 26th, 1920 in Jamestown, North Dakota.
Her mother died when she was four and she was abused by a stepmother. She said the experience turned out to be good for her, because "I learned independence". She decided to become a singer at 14, earning 50 cents (35p) a night at gigs for parent-teacher groups.
A string of hits, notably Why Don't You Do Right?, made her a star. Then she fell in love with Goodman's guitarist, Dave Barbour, and withdrew from the music world to be his wife and raise their daughter, Nicki. But she returned to singing when the marriage fell apart.
She collaborated with Sonny Burke on the songs for Disney's The Lady and the Tramp and was the voice for the wayward canine who sang He's a Tramp (But I Love Him). She recorded more than 600 songs and her return to recording in 1988 after a hiatus of more than a decade netted her a Grammy nomination for Miss Peggy Lee Sings The Blues in 1989 and another for The Peggy Lee Songbook: There'll Be Another Spring in 1991.
In addition to Barbour, Lee was married to actors Brad Dexter and Dewey Martin and percussionist Jack Del Rio. "They weren't really weddings, just long costume parties," she once said.
While appearing in New Orleans in 1985, she underwent double-bypass heart surgery. In 1998, she suffered a stroke which impaired her speech.
In addition to her daughter, Lee is survived by her grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.