{"id":1290,"date":"2013-01-19T11:31:38","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T11:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peggylee.com\/wp\/?p=1290"},"modified":"2021-08-04T10:19:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:19:12","slug":"profile-in-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peggylee.com\/profile-in-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile in Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n by Bob Harrington<\/p>\n

Wherever Peggy Lee appears, she\u2019s promoted as one of the living legends of show business. But Lee, who opens tonight at the Ballroom, doesn\u2019t take such accolades very seriously.<\/p>\n

How does it feel to be a legend? “I wonder if all that legend stuff didn\u2019t begin with the Blackgama \u2018What becomes a legend most?\u2019 ad I did. Nowadays, people in the business two weeks are called a legend, so I don\u2019t know what it means. On the one hand, it shows some respect. On the other, it shows you\u2019re getting older! I can look at it both ways.”<\/p>\n

Reaching legendary status wasn\u2019t easy. Plagued by poor health since the early \u201860s, Lee has had the specter of forced retirement hanging over her head for almost 30 years. But she\u2019s nothing if not resilient and determined. “I don\u2019t know how to stop,” she says softly. “I have to be on a stretcher to stop.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a position she\u2019s found herself in more than once. What gets her through? “I believe in a higher power. That\u2019s the one I talk to \u2013 Big Daddy! When I had my second heart operation, I lay there for six weeks. That\u2019s a long time to just think. I came out with a great serenity. I\u2019d already been through the death experience in 1961. They gave me six months to live if I kept working. In 1985, they said I should retire.<\/p>\n

“But I can\u2019t stop. I mean, sit there and wait for what? My last breath? What do I have to lose? I went back to work, and my health improved. Then it got worse, then it improved again. But each time, I got stronger. And each time, I\u2019ve gotten a nicer attitude about life.”<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s musical taste runs from Mahler (her favorite) to rock (“But it has to be soft rock. So soft, it\u2019s practically sand!”), and in her latest album, Miss Peggy Lee Sings the Blues, she delves into traditional Southern blues. That recording, and her recently released autobiography, Miss Peggy Lee, are graphic examples of her determination to keep going.<\/p>\n

Where does she get that strength from? “I believe that whatever we believe in strongly enough, we can accomplish. It\u2019s about the omniscience of God, the omnipresence, the omnipotence. If you tap into that, it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s music or writing or whatever, it\u2019s all here for us. No matter what we say, the universe says yes. If we say it\u2019s a lousy day, the universe says yes. If we say it\u2019s a very good day, the universe says yes. It\u2019s always positive. And that positive energy is there for us to use.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bob Harrington Wherever Peggy Lee appears, she\u2019s promoted as one of the living legends of show business. But Lee, who opens tonight at the Ballroom, doesn\u2019t take such accolades very seriously. How does it feel to be a legend? “I wonder if all that legend stuff didn\u2019t begin with[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-library"],"yoast_head":"\nProfile in Courage - Peggy Lee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peggylee.com\/profile-in-courage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Profile in Courage - Peggy Lee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Bob Harrington Wherever Peggy Lee appears, she\u2019s promoted as one of the living legends of show business. 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