| Mary Lee | |
 | |
| Birth: | 13 August 1921 Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| Death: | 13 March 2022 Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| Age: | 100 years, 212 days |
| Country: |  UK
|
| Centenarian | |
Mary Lee (born Mary Ann McDevitt; 13 August 1921 – 13 March 2022) was a British centenarian and singer, best known for performing with one of Britain's most popular interwar dance bands, led by Roy Fox. She also recorded with the band as their featured vocalist. As of March 2021, Lee was the last surviving British dance band singer who was active in the 1930s, when the bands were in the heyday of their popularity. She later became known in Scottish variety through performing with her husband, comedian Jack Milroy.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Mary Ann McDevitt was born into a working-class family in the summer of 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 Oil Company. 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.
War and post-war frame[]
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Lee was invited to broadcast on Saturday nights with Ambrose and his Orchestra from The May Fair Hotel, which she did for several months. By now, Lee had grown up and needed to be established as an adult artist. During the war, she also sang with The Squadronaires, an RAF dance band. Following a summer season in Dunoon, Lee decided to stay in Scotland, and appeared in comedy sketches for a summer show at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow with Tommy Morgan.
She mostly remained in Scotland for the next ten years, but in 1940, she briefly joined a top of the bill variety act, Stars of the Air, appearing with Sam Browne, Max Bacon and Gloria Brent at the Shepherd's Bush Empire for six months. By 1941, she had been called up for wartime service, and enlisted with ENSA. Lee subsequently sang at Catterick Camp and an RAF base on the south coast, entertaining the troops in England. In March 1941, she was back in Scotland, performing at the Victory Theatre in Paisley when the air raid sirens went off. Lee and her family stayed in the theatre, sheltering from what was the Clydebank Blitz.
It was during the war that Lee "started to take comedy seriously", she later wrote. "I still loved singing, but knew I would always make a good living from comedy. I spent most of the 1940s perfecting the art and also writing scripts." At the Gaiety Theatre in Ayr, she did a singing act and appeared with Dave Willis in sketches. Her work entertaining the troops continued when she was invited by bandleader Harry Roy to go to the Middle East with him. However, in Cairo, she had a nervous breakdown, and had to be hospitalised. Despite this setback, after a while, she got better, and returned to showbusiness. In 1949, she first met the comedian Jack Milroy. They worked together from 1952 onwards, topping the bill for three seasons at the Tivoli Theatre in Aberdeen.
Personal life[]
Lee was married to Jack Milroy, half of the famous Scottish double act Francie and Josie, in which Milroy played Francie and Rikki Fulton was Josie. The couple married in Aberdeen in 1952 and had two children, Diana and Jim. Lee and Milroy performed together, having formed a comedy and musical double act. In 1992 and 1993, they sang a duet on Scottish Television's Hogmanay shows. Their marriage lasted for nearly fifty years, only ending with Milroy's death on 1 February 2001.
Following this, Lee's memoirs, Forever Francie: My Life with Jack Milroy, were published in 2005. The couple's son, Jim, died from heart complications at the age of 48 in December 2014. He was a drummer at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow, and in 2015, Lee donated her late husband's Francie and Josie red suit to the theatre, commenting, "The suit will be a nice lasting memory to both Jack and Jim because this really was their favourite venue."
She is an Honorary Member and Honorary Vice-President of the Scottish Music Hall Society.
Lee turned 100 in August 2021.
She died at her home in Glasgow, Scotland, UK on 13 March 2022 at the age of 100 years, 212 days.
References[]
- 'An exceptional comedic talent': Tributes paid to British dance band star Mary Lee for 100th birthday The Scotsman, 13 August 2021
- Glasgow's 'true variety starlet' Mary Lee Milroy dies aged 100 Glasgow Times, 19 March 2022