Her parents’ marriage foundered when she was nine, and her mother remarried Jesse Smith, from whom Keely later took her stage name. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Keely Smith and Louis Prima rehearsing in 1959. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Keely Smith and Louis PrimaAlthough she continued to perform with Butera for a few years, Smith preferred to concentrate on raising her and Prima’s daughters, Toni and Luanne. The following year, The Intimate Keely Smith (reissued last year) teamed her with a small jazz group, as did Keely Smith Sings the John Lennon and Paul McCartney Songbook, an album devoted to Beatles’ love songs, with arrangements by Benny Carter, and the later I’m In Love Again with jazzmen Bud Shank and Bill Perkins (1985). • Keely Smith (Dorothy Jacqueline Keely), jazz vocalist, born 9 March 1928; died 16 December 2017

Source: The Guardian December 17, 2017 18:11 UTC