Dottie Bee was involved in the arts from an early age, singing in church choirs, grammar school choruses, and participating in Chicago Park District dance troupes--including a performance at Soldier Field for the annual Chicago Music Festival in the early 1930s. While attending John Marshall High on the west side, Dottie decided she wanted to be a big band singer, mostly inspired by fellow teenager Doris Day, but also other singers like Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford and Blossom Dearie. In the mid-50s while working as a waitress, her boss made her take the stage to sing standards like "It Had To Be You" with the bands. Soon after Dottie acquired an agent and joined 2 musicians unions, Chicago Local and American Federation of Musicians (she still gets her pension from AFM). She even learned to play the cocktail drums to register as a percussion player, as she was tested on playing a waltz, a fox trot, a Latin rhumba, etc. In 1954, she was invited to audition for the Sammy Kaye Orchestra who were in town to play the O’Henry Ballroom and she got the gig. Continuing as a solo singer, and mother of 4, she kept gigging, eventually meeting and forming a duo with piano player George Lescher in 1957--frequent guest John Kenny fully joined up in 1961 to form the Dottie Bee Three. By the mid-70s Brady was featured in the Gay Claridge Orchestra and the Chuck Foster Orchestra, all the while singing with the expanded George Lescher Orchestra (which was later taken over by Steve Cooper in the late 80s.) Playing legendary classy joints like the Drake, Palmer House, and the Conrad Hilton, Dottie continued to play with bands till 1994 at age 70. She also performed in 2011 for Roger Ebert and The Cliff Dwellers Art Foundation and this month she turns 90!

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