The singer born Dorothy Jaqueline Keely in Norfolk, Virginia on March 9, 1928, is better known to fans as Keely Smith. By age 11 she was singing regularly on local radio as a cast member on The Joe Brown Radio Gang. At 14 Smith sang with the naval air station band in her hometown and got her first paying gig a year later when she signed up with the Earl Bennett band.

Keely Smith first sang with Louis Prima far a recording session in 1949, and they married four years later. Throughout the 1950s the duo of Smith and Prima were big stars on radio, records, television, in the movies and on nightclub stages. Louis Prima’s exuberant performances contrasted beautifully with Keely Smith’s deadpan delivery. They won a Grammy in 1959, the first year those awards were given, for their hit That Old Black Magic. Smith and Prima divorced in 1961, but each continued to perform as a solo act throughout the remainder of that decade.

After a long hiatus, Keely Smith returned to singing in 1985 and was active well into the 21st century. She was of Irish and Cherokee descent and her music sometimes reflected influences from those cultures. Reviewing a Keely Smith club date in 2005, The New Yorker called her “…both legendary and underrated ... She can still sing the stuffing out of a ballad as well as swing any tune into the stratosphere.” Her final live performance was in 2011. Smith passed away in 2017 at the age of 89.

Here is a link to her singing with the Count Basie Orchestra on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964:

"LET ME CALL YOU SWEETHEART"