Died On This Date (October 17, 2007) Teresa Brewer / Popular ’50s Vocalist
Teresa Brewer (Born Theresa Breuer)
May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007

With some 600 recorded songs to her name, Teresa Brewer was one of America’s most prolific singers of the 1950s. Brewer began singing and dancing as early as two years old on various radio amateur shows. She was well at it when at just 12 years old, she decided to “retire” in order to go back to concentrate on her schooling. She released her first of many popular records in 1949. Over the course of her 20+ year career, she recorded with the likes of Liberace, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Dizzy Gillespie. Teresa Brewer died of a rare degenerative brain disease at the age of 76.

Earl Palmer was a session drummer with a resume that reads like a who’s who of popular music. He has been called the “most recorded drummer in history.” Over a career that spanned over 50 years, Palmer played on hit recordings by the likes of Little Richard, Fats Domino,
Oscar Pettiford was a virtuoso jazz double bassist and cellist who made his mark during the ’40s and ’50s. With his mother being Choctaw and his father half Cherokee and half African American, Pettiford was likely the most famous Native American jazz musician in history. Although most never new of his Native American lineage. Pettiford grew up playing in the family band, first on piano, and then switching to double bass at the age of 14. Pettiford was one of the forefathers of the be bop movement and over the course of this career worked with the likes of 
