Peggy Lee was the daughter of Andrew and Frances Clooney, and grew up in Maysville, Kentucky, where she and her sister Betty Clooney would often sing in their grandfather's mayoral election campaigns, which he won three times.
At the age of 13, she made her singing debut on Cincinnati radio station WLW in 1941, working with band leader Barney Rapp, who had also worked with notable artists such as Doris Day and Andy Williams.
She attended high school at Our Lady of Mercy in Cincinnati, and later appeared with her sister in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the Steel Pier with Tony Pastor's band in 1946.
In 1949, she went solo and later appeared in the classic film White Christmas (1954),co-starring opposite Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.
Her first big hit was "Come On A My House" in 1951, and she went on to have many successful songs throughout her career, including "Hey There" in 1954, "Tenderly", "This Ole House" and "Half As Much" in 1952.
In 1953, she married José Ferrer, with whom she had five children between 1955 and 1960.
However, her marriage to Ferrer was marked by turmoil, and she suffered a nervous breakdown in 1968.
Despite this, she resumed her career in 1976 and continued to perform until her eventual retirement.
Her life was dramatized in a 1982 made-for-television movie starring Sondra Locke, who was actually just 16 years Rosemary's junior but constantly lied about her age.
Peggy Lee's family was also notable, with her son Gabriel married to singer Debby Boone, daughter of 1950s pop singer Pat Boone.
Her brother, Nick Clooney, was an ABC news anchor in Cincinnati, and her nephew George Clooney has developed into one of the biggest movie stars of the 21st century.
In 1968, she was standing in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with Roosevelt Grier when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the hotel kitchen after she had participated in his campaign rally.
