Ketty Lester (born Revoyda Frierson; August 16, 1934) is an American singer and actress known for her 1961 hit single "Love Letters", which reached the top 5 of the charts in the U.S. and the UK.

She won a scholarship to study music at San Francisco State College, and in the early 1950s, she began performing under the name "Ketty Lester" in the city's Purple Onion club.

The chosen category was "Mother Goose", a subject she admitted knowing nothing about; George Fenneman fed the correct answers to her, and she and her partner won $1,000.

[6] Lester's recording of "Love Letters", which featured Lincoln Mayorga's sparse piano arrangement and Earl Palmer on drums,[5] rose to No.

She released several unsuccessful singles for that label, and two albums, The Soul of Me and Where Is Love?, in a more R&B-oriented style that has been compared to Dinah Washington and Nancy Wilson.

She was reportedly offered the role eventually taken by Diahann Carroll in the 1968–71 TV series Julia, and appeared in a variety of movies, including Uptight (1968), Blacula (1972), Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975).

Lester recorded an album of gospel music titled I Saw Him in 1984, and returned to films, appearing in Street Knight (1993), and as Aunt Lucy in House Party 3 (1994).