[1] Roberta's father Robert Sherwood was the manager of a traveling minstrel show; she and her sister Anne were raised on the road after their mother died.

A trip to Las Vegas, where she stayed with family friend Gene Austin, failed to advance her career.

In September 1955 a chance meeting led to a nightclub gig in a Miami Beach club, and in January 1956 she suddenly became a success.

[2] A November 1956 Billboard poll of DJs picked her as the 19th most popular "album artist" and #8 on a list of "Most Promising Female Vocalists".

She continued to headline nightclubs into the late 1970s and toured in a variety show with Cyd Charisse, Anna Maria Alberghetti, and others in 1980.

[9] Sherwood was an occasional actress, appearing in a 1957 TV movie about the early life of George M. Cohan entitled "Mr. Broadway," in which she co-starred with Mickey Rooney, James Dunn, Gloria DeHaven and June Havoc, sporadically in the 1960s (including as the housekeeper in The Courtship of Eddie's Father), and as late as 1978 had a bit part in an episode of The Incredible Hulk playing "Mrs. Waverly" in an episode titled "Earthquakes Happen".

[9] She continued performing in the Los Angeles area well into the early 1990s and recorded a final album, "The Tribute Collection", in 1992, produced by her son Don.

[16] One of her other sons, Jerry Lanning, became an actor known for both his stage and TV work, appearing early on as a singer of cowboy songs on the Donna Reed Show episode called "Big Star" and as young rock and roll singer Randy Twizzle in the episode "The Twizzle" on The Dick Van Dyke Show.