Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002). 
Location to be announced, downtown Fargo. Above image is not representative of the planned mural.

Born in Jamestown and raised in rural Wimbledon, ND, Norma Deloris Egstrom’s six decade music career began when radio personality Ken Kennedy named her Peggy Lee while singing on air at WDAY radio in Fargo. She was regular in the studios on the top floor of the Black building and just up Broadway, often packed in a full house at the Powers Hotel Café (currently BernBaums). A gig in a nightclub in Chicago led to her being discovered by Benny Goodman and she joined his band in 1941. In the decades to come, she became a staple of American popular music as a singer and songwriter. 

Among her many hits, her versions of “Fever” and “I am a Woman” became pop standards. She had an acting career that included voicing four characters in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. Peggy Lee was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1955 film Pete Kelly’s Blues. She also had an impact on culture beyond her music and acting. Known as “Miss Peggy” her name and stardom became the inspiration for Jim Henson’s Muppet “Miss Piggy.” And one likely apocryphal story claims a her love of tequila led a bartender to create the Margarita cocktail for her. 

While Norma Engstrom may have been born in Jamestown, the music icon Peggy Lee was born in Fargo. This planned mural will memorialize her and remind the city of her origins. The mural will return her downtown, her sultry eyes bringing Fever and reminding Fargo of her origins. 

Peggy Lee is planned be the next Fargo Music Icon Mural! Read more about the Duke Ellington and Bob Dylan mural and the planned Bobby Vee mural on this web site.