Loretta Lee

Lee was born Margaret Viegas[3] (or Vieages)[4] in New Orleans, the daughter of a juvenile court judge,[3] Joseph Viegas (or Vieages), and his wife.[4] Her ancestry was Spanish on her father's side and Irish on her mother's side.[5] She was educated at a convent in New Orleans,[6] but left that city as a teenager because her parents opposed her romance with a young Frenchman.[7]

She sang with the Boswell Sisters at charity functions when she was a youngster[8] and later studied music at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, winning a Peabody scholarship for four years and a Juilliard scholarship for one year. She was the third Peabody student to graduate as a singer.[9] On June 1, 1927, radio station WBAL in Baltimore, Maryland, broadcast one of her recitals.[9]

A visit to a publishing house during a trip to New York City in 1932,[9] when she was 18,[10] led to a singing engagement for Lee at a New York night club, launching her career.[9] George Hall, leader of the orchestra at the Hotel Taft,[11] heard her singing and invited her to perform with his orchestra,[9] which she did that same evening.[6] A year later, she was also the female singer with Hall and his orchestra on his program on CBS radio.[12]

In the fall of 1935, she became a featured vocalist on Your Hit Parade, as the program's lineup of performers was revamped.[8] Also in 1935, she was the singer on a comedy program that featured Marty May[13] and Carol Deis,[14] and she had her own program on CBS radio.[15] In 1937, she became the main vocalist on a new radio program featuring Werner Janssen and his orchestra.[16]

She also performed in theaters in vaudeville engagements[17] and appeared in the short film Midnight Melodies.[18]

Lee was married to Irvin L. Dussom.[19]