She achieved early recognition whilst still a teenager as a vocalist with Roy Fox's dance band, which was one of Britain's most popular in the interwar period.
[1] She later became known in Scottish variety through performing with her husband, comedian Jack Milroy, and presented an award-winning programme on Radio Clyde in the 1990s.
[2][3] Mary Ann McDevitt was born into a working-class family on 13 August 1921,[4][5] in a second floor Glasgow tenement flat on Scotland Road in Kinning Park.
At 13, she read an advert in the local newspaper seeking a girl singer for a competition, and went to the auditions at the Pettigrew & Stephens department store, with the famous dance band leader Roy Fox in charge.
The orchestra manager asked her to join them on a permanent basis, to which her father responded that she would not be available until her upcoming fourteenth birthday in August 1935.
McDevitt left school that June, and got a job in a slaters' office, before being sent a telegram asking her to join Fox's orchestra at the Streatham Locarno in London.
[6] "Truckin'" had first been introduced by Cora LaRedd at the Cotton Club in New York City; as was the custom of the day, dance bands would record cover versions of popular contemporary songs.
In June, Lee recorded vocals for Fox's version of "This Year's Kisses", a song by Irving Berlin from the musical film On the Avenue, in which it was introduced by Alice Faye.
In October, she featured on a medley recorded by Fox, "Hit Tunes of the Years 1928-1937", in which she duetted with Sam Browne on "Let's Put Out the Lights and Go to Sleep" and sang "Stormy Weather" as a solo.
The same year, Lee was with Fox when he recorded a number of titles for commercial radio, for a show sponsored by Reckitt's Bath Cubes.
However, she "hated" being with his band: performing "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", Payne told her to stop phrasing her singing like Ella Fitzgerald, who had popularised the song in America.
Her second and final solo record paired George H. Clutsam's "Ma Curly Headed Baby" with the Scottish song "My Ain Folk".
[4][9][10] Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Lee was invited to broadcast on Saturday nights with Ambrose and his Orchestra from The May Fair Hotel, which she did for several months.
She mostly remained in Scotland for the next ten years, but in 1940, she briefly joined a top of the bill variety act, Stars of the Air, appearing with Sam Browne, Max Bacon and Gloria Brent at the Shepherd's Bush Empire for six months.
Lee subsequently sang at Catterick Camp and an RAF base on the south coast, entertaining the troops in England.
[2][3][4][11] Despite being an established star when she met her husband, who was just starting out in entertainment, Lee decided to put family life ahead of her showbusiness career.
She subsequently made contact with him, and it led to Dell inviting Lee to perform at Royal Festival Hall on two occasions.
As part of BBC Radio 2's South Bank Pops series, she was featured in the 'Dance Band Days' segment of the 1976 International Festival of Light Music.
Lee and her husband Jack Milroy were honoured with a dinner by the Scottish branch of the Variety Club of Great Britain in the 1980s.
[14] From 1991 to 1994, Lee presented a programme on Radio Clyde, which she later described as a "homely show geared to the Golden Oldies", adding that it gave her "the chance to play all the big band stuff which was enjoyed by young and old alike.