A diabetic, Lee was often troubled by weight and glandular problems. In 1961, she was felled by double pneumonia and in 1976, she had a near-fatal fall in a New York hotel. She was again seriously injured in another fall in Las Vegas in 1987. In early 1985, she underwent four angioplasties - balloon surgery to open clogged arteries - and resumed her singing tour. While appearing in New Orleans in October 1985, she underwent double-bypass heart surgery. In 1998, she suffered a stroke which impaired her speech, requiring therapy to recover.
At the time of her death, she was leading a potentially groundbreaking class-action lawsuit vs. Universal Music, a unit of Vivendi Universal. In early January 2002, the music giant agreed to pay $4.75 million in back royalties to as many as 300 performers to settle the suit.
Has a rose named after her. The "Peggy Lee" rose is pink with a touch of peach.
Has one daughter, Nicki Lee Foster (born 1944), from her marriage to late guitarist Dave Barbour.
Her work on the 1955 Disney film, Lady and the Tramp (1955) led to a landmark legal judgment 36 years later when a California court awarded her $2.3 million after she sued for a portion of the profits from the videocassette sale of the movie. The case hinged on a clause in her pre-video-era contract barring the sale of "transcriptions" of the movie without her approval.
In addition to her accomplishments as a singer, she was a very fine songwriter, with several hit songs to her credit, many of them written in collaboration with her first husband, Dave Barbour. Her song writing credits include: "It's a Good Day," "Manana," "I Don't Know Enough About You" (all with Barbour), "Bella Notte," "Peace on Earth" (both with Sonny Burke), "Don't Forget to Feed the Reindeer," and "So, What's New?" (with John Pisano and Ervin "Bud" Coleman).
Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992.
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.
Is portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow in Infamous (2006)
Is the namesake of the "Margarita" cocktail. In 1948 Santos Cruz, a bartender at the famed Texas nightclub the Balinese Room, mixed up a new drink especially for her. He named it for the Spanish version of "Margaret" which is the formal version of "Peggy".
Peggy Lee's final words, "Virgina doesn't come in till Tuesday." Virgina Bernard was her maid for many years.
Ranked #93 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock N Roll
Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1987.
Recipient of the North Dakota Roughrider Award.
She became engaged to her ex-husband David Barbour, who divorced her because he felt his drinking was not good for his daughter, four days before he died. He claimed he had been sober thirteen years by then and was ready to re-marry her.
She decided to become a singer at age 14, when she earned 50 cents a night at gigs for local PTAs. A few years later she traveled to Fargo where she sang on a local radio station. The WDAY program director suggested a name change, and she became Peggy Lee.
She had pneumonia when she gave birth to her daughter and almost died.
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6319 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Suffered stroke. [27 October 1998]
The original line-up on her 1958 smash hit "Fever" comprised: Jack Mondragon (double bass), Shelly Manne (drums) and Howard A. Roberts (electric guitar). It was Peggy Lee's idea to eliminate Roberts' guitar, entirely, and have him provide the funky finger-snapping instead. Manne used his hands and fingers (rather than drumsticks) to tap his snare drum and tom-tom to the accompaniment of his bass drum.