Peggy King, Big-Band Singer and 'George Gobel Show' Star, Dies at 96

Peggy King, a singer who worked with several touring big bands before becoming one of the best-known faces of early American television, died Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Saunders House assisted living facility in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. She was 96. Her publicist, Alan Eicher, confirmed her death to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which reported that she had been living with Alzheimer's disease.

King was born on Feb. 16, 1930, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Ravenna High School in Ohio. She began singing on radio in Cleveland and went on to sing with the big bands of Charlie Spivak, Ralph Flanagan and Ray Anthony, according to The Hollywood Reporter and the jazz writer Marc Myers, who remembered her on his site JazzWax. Myers writes that her name may not be familiar to most jazz fans, but that she was among the most popular female co-stars of television's first decade.

Television soon took over. King appeared opposite Mel Torme on his first show in 1952, Myers writes, and was then a regular on The George Gobel Show from 1954 to 1957, where Gobel nicknamed her "Pretty Perky Peggy King," a name that stayed with her. Variety reports that she was nominated for an Emmy as best female singer in 1955, performed "Count Your Blessings" at the 1955 Academy Awards and co-hosted the Emmys in 1958. Myers notes that she was a frequent guest on many other hosts' programs until she married in 1961, and Variety lists appearances on The Steve Allen Show, The Perry Como Show, The Jack Benny Program and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

On records, Columbia Records executive Mitch Miller signed her to a long-term contract, and she made two best-selling albums, Wish Upon a Star and Girl Meets Boy, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which adds that DownBeat and Billboard named her best new singer for 1955-56. Both outlets report that composer Arthur Hamilton wrote "Cry Me a River" for her, but Miller would not let her record it.

Her screen work included a singing cameo in Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful, a role in Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy and the part of a stewardess in the 1957 thriller Zero Hour!, along with guest appearances on Maverick and Dragnet. She was among the first group of performers to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 1960, and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2010.

King kept singing long after her television peak. Variety reports that she performed in the Philadelphia area, New York and Los Angeles as late as 2014, and that her last released recording was the 2016 album Songs a la King. She is survived by her daughter, Suzy Rudofker, and son-in-law, Dwain Goforth.