Lucy Reed

For the American lawyer and scholar, see Lucy Reed (lawyer).

Lucy Reed (January 14, 1921 – July 1, 1998), born Lucille Magdalyn Dollinger, was an American jazz and blues singer, active on the Chicago jazz scene in the 1950s.^[1][2]

Lucy Reed
Born	Lucille Magdalyn Dollinger January 14, 1921 Marshfield, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	July 1, 1998 (age 77) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Other names	Lucy Reed Seymour
Occupation	Jazz singer

Early life

Reed was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin, the daughter of Max Dollinger and Elizabeth Shields Dollinger (later Jetty). Her father was a machine operator, born in Germany. Her parents divorced in 1934, and both remarried.^[3] While she was a teenager attending Humboldt High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, she sang on KSTP radio with a group of four girls, earning $5 per week.^[4]

Career

Reed sang with the Jerry Salone Orchestra in Michigan as a young woman.^[5] She met her first husband, jazz drummer Joey DeRidder while living in Iron Mountain, Michigan, and she performed with his musical group, the Joey DeRidder Orchestra.^[4] In 1955, she performed with Bill Evans in New York City, in Miami in 1956,^[6] and with Dick Marx and Johnny Frigo in 1957.^[7]

A 1956 reviewer in Down Beat described Reed as "a singer who may possess too much innate feeling for lyrics, and honesty in delivery, ever to have a hit record, but who should be able to cultivate a flock of enthusiastic listeners."^[8]

Personal life

Reed married Joseph Alphonse DeRidder in June, 1941 and had a son, Jeffrey, born in 1942. DeRidder was killed in action while co-piloting a B-17 over Munich, Germany on July 31, 1944. She married her second husband, Serge Seymour, in 1957; they had two sons, Steven and Ted. She died in 1998, at the age of 77 in Chicago. Chicago jazz musicians including Audrey Morris and Frank D'Rone came to her deathbed, to sing in her last hours.^[4]

Discography

• The Singing Reed (Fantasy, 1957)^[9]
• This Is Lucy Reed (Fantasy, 1957)^[10]
• Basic Reeding (Audiophile, 1994)^[11]