Don Prell

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Peggy Lee: Too Marvelous for Words

by C. Michael Bailey
June 30, 2026

“Every musician in town wanted that gig... She got whoever she wanted, because she was so good."  --pianist Lou Levy, as quoted by James Gavin in Is That All There Is?: The Strange Life of Peggy Lee (Atria Books, 2014) Born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, in 1920, Peggy Lee survived a harsh childhood through music. In 1936, she began singing on KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She later hosted her own ...