Birthday profile

Mary Lee (singer)

Mary Lee, Scottish singer (died 2022)

Born
August 13, 1921
Died
March 13, 2022
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1921

About Mary Lee (singer)

Mary Lee (born Mary Ann McDevitt; 13 August 1921 – 13 March 2022) was a Scottish singer, variety performer and broadcaster whose career spanned the 1930s to the 1990s. She achieved early recognition whilst still a teenager as a vocalist with Roy Fox's dance band, which was one of Britain's most popular in the interwar period. At the time of her death, Lee was the last surviving singer who had been active with the British dance bands in the 1930s, the heyday of their popularity. She later became known in Scottish variety through performing with her husband, comedian Jack Milroy, and presented an award-winning programme on Radio Clyde in the 1990s. == Early life == Mary Ann McDevitt was born into a working-class family on 13 August 1921, in a second floor Glasgow tenement flat on Scotland Road in Kinning Park. She was the first child of Isabella and Willie McDevitt; her mother was a housewife, and her father was a lorry driver for Shell-Mex & BP. McDevitt's younger brother Eddie was born three and a half years later. As a child, she sang along to the bands on the radio at home. She attended Scotland Street Primary School and Lambhill Street School, originally planning to be a hairdresser. Aged ten, she began singing on Saturday nights at a church hall. There were no microphones, so she sang with a megaphone.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Mary Lee (singer) was born

Mary Lee (singer) was born in 1921. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1921

  • #1 song"My Man" – Fanny Brice
  • Top movieThe Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
  • Best-selling bookMain Street – Sinclair Lewis

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJack Dempsey vs Georges Carpentier — first million-dollar gate
  • Top headlineWarren G. Harding inaugurated as 29th President
  • Technology milestoneAlbert Einstein wins the Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Defining fadOuija boards
  • Notable inventionLie detector (polygraph)
  • World population1.88 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWarren G. Harding
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • U.S. population108.5M

1921 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Mary Lee (singer)'s birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19212026
Gas$0.26$3.45/gal
Average home$5,500$435,000
Average income$3,010$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population108.5M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Discogs, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.