Editing Peggy Lee (section)

==Early life==
Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in [[Jamestown, North Dakota]], United States, on May 26, 1920, the seventh of the eight children of Selma Emele (née Anderson) Egstrom and Marvin Olaf Egstrom, a station agent for the [[Midland Continental Railroad]]. Her family were [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jc.edu/users/stevenso/peggylee/index.html |title=Miss Peggy Lee |publisher=[[University of Jamestown]] |author=Stevenson, Kate |date=October 26, 2005 |access-date=September 30, 2018 |archive-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528164158/http://www.jc.edu/users/stevenso/peggylee/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogi.se/shf9731.htm |title=Nättidningen Rötter – för dig som släktforskar! (Släkthistoriskt Forum) |publisher=Genealogi.se |access-date=April 10, 2012}}</ref> After her mother died when Lee was four,<ref>{{cite web|author= Torresen, David (content) and Uy, David (design) |url=http://www.peggylee.com/biography/bio_curbio.html |title=Biography – Current Biography |publisher=PeggyLee.com |access-date=December 15, 2012}}</ref> her father married Minnie Schaumberg Wiese.<ref>{{cite web|last=Eriksmoen |first=Curt |url=http://bismarcktribune.com/news/columnists/curt-eriksmoen/peggy-lee-had-a-difficult-childhood/article_f4035046-9b98-11e1-98d9-001a4bcf887a.html |title=Peggy Lee had a difficult childhood |publisher=Bismarcktribune.com |date=May 13, 2012 |access-date=December 15, 2012}}</ref> His family's original name was Ekström.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gavin |first=James |title=Is That All There Is? |date=November 11, 2014 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781451641684}}</ref>

Lee and her family lived in several towns along the [[Midland Continental Railroad]] (Jamestown, Nortonville and Wimbledon). She graduated from Wimbledon High School in 1937.<ref name="NDTOURISM"/>

Lee began singing from a young age. In Wimbledon, Lee was the female singer for a six-piece college dance band with leader Lyle "Doc" Haines. She traveled to various locations with Haines's quintet on Fridays after school and on weekends.<ref name="Miss Peggy Lee" />

Lee first sang professionally over [[KOVC]] radio in [[Valley City, North Dakota]], in 1936.<ref name="CimentRussell2007"/> She later had her own 15-minute Saturday 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.

In October 1937, radio personality Ken Kennedy, of [[WDAY (AM)|WDAY]] in [[Fargo, North Dakota|Fargo]] (the most widely heard station in North Dakota), auditioned her and put her on the air that day, but not before he changed her name to Peggy Lee.<ref name="McMorrow2010">{{cite book|last=McMorrow|first=Merle W.|title=A Long Short Life: The Trials, Tribulations, Travels, and Trivia of an 88 Year Old Kid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3WxkEGwVqaYC&pg=PA146|access-date=August 11, 2013|date=December 2010|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4269-4938-8|page=146}}</ref>

Lee left home and traveled to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood, California]], at the age of 17 in March 1938. Her first job was seasonal work on [[Balboa Island, Newport Beach]], as a short order cook and waitress at Harry's Cafe. When the job ended after Easter, she was hired to work as a carnival barker at the Balboa Fun Zone. She wrote about this experience in the song, "The Nickel Ride", which she composed with [[Dave Grusin]] for the 1974 film of the same name.<ref name="Miss Peggy Lee">{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Peggy |title=Miss Peggy Lee |date=1989 |publisher=Donald I. Fine |isbn=1-55611-112-6 |pages=74–76 }}</ref>

Later in 1938, Lee returned to Hollywood to audition for the [[MC]] at The Jade. Her employment was cut short when she fainted onstage due to overwork and an inadequate diet. After she was taken to the [[Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center]] she was told she needed a [[tonsillectomy]]. Lee returned to North Dakota for the operation.<ref name="Fever">{{cite book|last1=Richmond|first1=Peter|title=Fever : the life and music of Miss Peggy Lee|date=2007|publisher=Picador/Henry Holt|location=New York|isbn=978-0312426613|edition=1st Picador|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1IVpXzE53o8C&q=Peggy+Lee+tonsillectomy&pg=PA549|access-date=September 11, 2015}}</ref>

The following year, remaining in North Dakota, she was hired to perform regularly at [[Powers Hotel (Fargo, North Dakota)|The Powers Hotel]] in Fargo, and toured with both the Sev Olson and the [[Will Osborne (singer)|Will Osborne]] Orchestras.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news |title=100 Jazz Profiles |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/profiles/peggy_lee.shtml |access-date=January 8, 2021 |work=BBC Radio 3 |date=January 2014}}</ref> In 1939 she was also again broadcasting at WDAY.<ref>[https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Station-Albums/WDAY-Album-1939.pdf "Behind the Dial with WDAY" (promotional volume), 1939, n.p]</ref>

When Lee returned to California in 1940, she took a job singing at The Doll House in [[Palm Springs]]. Here, she developed her trademark sultry purr, having decided to compete with the noisy crowd with subtlety rather than volume.
[[File:Peggy_Lee_-_Chesterfield_is_my_cigarette,_1953.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Peggy Lee, famous for her sultry singing voice, featured in a cigarette ad in 1953|Peggy Lee, famous for her sultry singing voice, featured in a cigarette ad in 1953.]]

{{blockquote|I knew I couldn't sing over them, so I decided to sing under them. The more noise they made, the more softly I sang. When they discovered they couldn't hear me, they began to look at me. Then, they began to listen. As I sang, I kept thinking, 'softly with feeling'. The noise dropped to a hum; the hum gave way to silence. I had learned how to reach and hold my audience—softly, with feeling.<ref name="Miss Peggy Lee" />}}

While performing at The Doll House, Lee met Frank Bering, the owner of the Ambassador East and West in Chicago. He offered her a gig at the Buttery Room, a nightclub in the [[Ambassador West|Ambassador Hotel West]]. There, she was noticed by bandleader [[Benny Goodman]]. According to Lee:
{{blockquote|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 August 1941 and made her first recording, singing "[[Elmer's Tune]]". Lee stayed with the Benny Goodman Orchestra for two years.<ref name="Balliett2006">{{cite book|last=Balliett|first=Whitney|title=American Singers: Twenty-Seven Portraits in Song|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=25yl91-bDt8C&pg=PA88|access-date=August 11, 2013|year=2006|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-835-7|page=88}}</ref><ref name="Mackin2008">{{cite book|last=Mackin|first=Tom|title=Brief Encounters: From Einstein to Elvis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bn61Y8umuPQC&pg=PA230|access-date=August 11, 2013|date=June 1, 2008|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4343-8561-1|page=230}}</ref>