[citation needed] She grew up in the Black Belt area of Chicago and finished Sexton Elementary School in 1928.

[citation needed] In 1935, she signed with RKO Pictures to be the dancing partner of Bill Robinson in the film Hooray for Love which also featured Fats Waller.

She also performed in a 1935 London production of the revue At Home Abroad, taking over numbers that Waters and Eleanor Powell had in the Broadway version.

[2] On Broadway, LeGon portrayed Jenny in Black Rhythm (1936), and Lily Ann in Early to Bed (1943).

[4] In 1947, she played Cab Calloway's treacherous girlfriend Minnie the moocher in a low-budget full-length musical movie with an all-Black cast titled Hi-De-Ho.

[11] Zadie Smith's 2016 novel, Swing Time, features two biracial young women who discover LeGon while watching videotapes of old film musicals.

When they see her perform in Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937), the character Tracey "sits perched close to the TV, studying her moves, her mouth open in surprise.