Lee Wiley was a Cherokee jazz singer who broadcast on radio and recorded albums in the 19230s-50s.

She left home at 15 in 1923 to chase a singing career on New York City radio stations.

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”

Her radio career started at KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

She sang on the Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt program on NBC in 1932, and featured on Victor Young’s radio show in 1933.

From June 10, 1936, until September 2, 1936, she had her own show, Lee Wiley, on CBS. You’ll hear an aircheck from that WABC NYC radio series on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

She then had her own series of 15 minute shows on the Mutual Network from its KHJ studios in Los Angeles. You’ll also hear an aircheck from that on this week’s Phantom Dancer..

In 1939, Wiley recorded eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shop Records. The set sold well and was followed by albums of 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.

In 1944-45 she sang on several episodes of the Eddie Condon Town Hall Jazz Concert series recorded by WJZ NYC and the Blue Network, You’ll hear her on one of those shows, too, this week.

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.”

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 Revue Studios. Wiley’s singing voice was provided by Joy Bryan.

Lee Wiley 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.