Editing Lee Wiley

{{short description|American singer}}

{{more citations needed|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians -->
| name              = Lee Wiley
| image             = Lee_Wiley_singer.jpg
| background        = solo_singer
| birth_name        = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1908|10|09|mf=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Fort Gibson, Oklahoma]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1975|12|11|1908|10|09}}
| death_place       = New York City
| genre             = Jazz
| occupation        = Singer
| years_active      = 1920s–1950s
| spouse            = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Jess Stacy]]|1943|1948|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Nat Tischenkel|1966}}
}}
}}

'''Lee Wiley''' (October 9, 1908 &ndash; December 11, 1975) was an American jazz singer during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

==Biography==
Wiley was born in [[Fort Gibson, Oklahoma]].<ref name="Yanow2000"/> At fifteen, she left home to pursue a singing career, singing on New York City radio stations.<ref name="enm">{{cite book |last=Wright-McLeod |first=Brian |title=The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TkBIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA209 |accessdate=13 September 2019 |date=30 January 2018|publisher=University of Arizona Press|isbn=978-0-8165-3864-5|pages=209–}}</ref> Her career was interrupted by a fall while horseback riding. She suffered temporary blindness but recovered. At the age of 19 she was a member of the [[Leo Reisman]] Orchestra, with whom in 1931 she recorded three songs: "Take It from Me", "Time On My Hands", and her composition "Got the South in My Soul".<ref>[[Stanley Green (historian)|Stanley Green]], Liner Notes, Lee Wiley Sings Rodgers and Hart and Harold Arlen, Monmouth-Evergreen Record, LP MES/6807</ref>

Wiley began her radio career at [[KTSB (AM)|KVOO]] in Tulsa, Oklahoma.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stuart |first1=William L. |title=Listen to the Echo of a Distant Drum |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34507423/lee_wiley/ |accessdate=3 August 2019 |work=Detroit Free Press |date=September 6, 1936 |location=Michigan, Detroit |page=55|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> She sang on the ''Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt'' program on NBC in 1932,<ref name="rp">{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows |date=1999 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-0-7864-4513-4 |page=236}}</ref> and was featured on [[Victor Young|Victor Young's]] radio show in 1933.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Hoffman |first1=J. |title=Air Briefs |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/30s/1933/BB-1933-09-30.pdf#page=13 |accessdate=3 August 2019 |magazine=Billboard |date=September 30, 1933 |page=13}}</ref> From June 10, 1936, until September 2, 1936, she had her own show, ''Lee Wiley'', on [[CBS]].<ref name="dunningota">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22Lee+Wiley,+singer%22&pg=PA390 | last=Dunning| first=John| authorlink=John Dunning (detective fiction author)| title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio| date=1998| publisher=Oxford University Press| location=New York, NY| isbn=978-0-19-507678-3| page=390| edition=Revised| accessdate=2019-09-28}}</ref>

In 1939, Wiley recorded eight [[George Gershwin|Gershwin]] songs on [[Gramophone record#78 rpm disc size|78s]] with a small group for [[Liberty Music Shop Records]]. The set sold well and was followed by 78s dedicated to the music of [[Cole Porter]] (1940) and [[Richard Rodgers]] & [[Lorenz Hart]] (1940 and 1954), [[Harold Arlen]] (1943), and 10" LPs dedicated to the music of [[Vincent Youmans]] and [[Irving Berlin]] (1951).

She sang with [[Paul Whiteman]] and later, the [[Casa Loma Orchestra]]. A collaboration with composer [[Victor Young]] resulted in several songs for which Wiley wrote the lyrics, including "Got the South in My Soul" and "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere."<ref>John Chilton, Who's Who in Jazz, 1978 Time-Life, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-188159.</ref>

On October 11, 1963, ''Bob Hope Theater'' on [[NBC]]-TV presented "Something About Lee Wiley". [[Piper Laurie]] portrayed Wiley in the episode, which was produced by [[Universal Television#Revue Studios|Revue Studios]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Witbeck |first1=Charles |title=N.B.C. To Feature Jazz Singer of '30's, Lee Wiley's Life, on Bob Hope Theater |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34501532/lee_wiley/ |accessdate=3 August 2019 |work=The Journal News |date=October 11, 1963 |location=New York, White Plains |page=21|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Wiley's singing voice was provided by Joy Bryan.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stern |first1=Harold |title=Hope Missed Chance To Feature Lee Wiley |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34506918/lee_wiley/ |accessdate=3 August 2019 |work=The Troy Record |date=October 22, 1963 |location=New York, Troy |page=8|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Lee Wiley was born with last name Willey. Lee was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and was buried in her family plot in Cherokee Nation. Wiley married the jazz pianist [[Jess Stacy]] in 1943. The couple was described by their friend Deane Kincaide as being as "compatible as two cats, tails tied together, hanging over a clothesline"; they divorced in 1948. Her response to Stacy's desire to get a divorce was, "What will Bing Crosby be thinking of you divorcing me?", while Stacy said of Wiley, "They did not burn the last witch at Salem."<ref name=Coller>Coller, D. (1998). ''Jess Stacy: The Quiet Man of Jazz'', GHB Jazz Foundation, 1998; {{ISBN|978-0-9638890-4-1}}</ref>

She later married retired businessman Nat Tischenkel in 1966.

Wiley died of cancer on December 11, 1975 at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York City at the age of 67. Her obituary notes her last public performance was at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1972.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lee Wiley Dead Jazz Singer, 60 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/12/archives/lee-wiley-dead-jazz-singer-60-star-of-30s-and-40s-noted-for-gently.html |publisher=The New York Times |access-date=14 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231225014233/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/12/archives/lee-wiley-dead-jazz-singer-60-star-of-30s-and-40s-noted-for-gently.html |archive-date=December 25, 2023}}</ref>

==Discography==
* ''Night in Manhattan'' (Columbia, 1951)
* ''Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans'' (Columbia, 1952)
* ''Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin'' (Columbia, 1952)
* ''Lee Wiley Sings Rodgers & Hart'' (Storyville, 1954)
* ''Duologue'' with Ellis Larkins (Storyville, 1954)
* ''West of the Moon'' (RCA Victor, 1957)
* ''A Touch of the Blues'' (RCA, 1958)
* ''Back Home Again'' (Monmouth Evergeen, 1971)
* ''On the Air'' (Totem, 1977)
* ''The Complete Session of April 10, 1940'' with Benny Berigan (Blu-Disc, 1984)
* ''Live on Stage: Town Hall, New York'' (Audiophile, 2007)

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Yanow2000">{{Citation
 | first1    = Scott
 | last1     = Yanow
 | title     = Swing
 | publisher = Hal Leonard Corporation
 | pages     = 293–95
 | year      = 2000
 | isbn      = 161774476X
 | url       = https://books.google.com/books?id=ntabwaEh2uQC&pg=PA293}}</ref>}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiley, Lee}}
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:People from Fort Gibson, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Singers from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:American jazz singers]]
[[Category:American women jazz singers]]
[[Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in New York (state)]]
[[Category:20th-century American singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women singers]]