Born Norma Deloris Engstrom in Jamestown, ND, she milked cows before making her singing debut on a local radio show and later became famous as a vocalist with the Benny Goodman band. She continued on her own to secure a place among America's top nightclub, TV, and recording stars. Some of her popular song hits were "Fever," "After You've Gone," "Come Back to Me," "Hey There," "Is That All There Is," "Kansas City," "Nice 'n' Easy" and "Pass Me By." She appeared in only four films, playing dramatic leads in two, THE JAZZ SINGER (1953) and PETE KELLY'S BLUES (1955). She was nominated for an Oscar® for her performance in the latter. She also wrote lyrics for many of her songs, including "Angels on Your Pillow", "A Christmas Lullaby", "He's a Tramp" (and several of the other songs in LADY AND THE TRAMP, 1955), "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", "I Wanna Be Seduced", "It's a Good Day", "Johnny Guitar", "Mañana" and "That's My Style". Her four husbands included actors Brad Dexter and Dewey Martin.  Nominated for Supporting Actress 1955: PETE KELLY'S BLUES 1 nomination