Norman Lee

Norman Lee (March 21, 1921 – December 6, 1978) was an American songwriter, jazz clarinetist and big band singer. Born Norman Uehle, Norman's mother, Alice, "Americanized" the family name to Lee when she had her own band, the Alice E. Lee Orchestra. Norman played with his mother's orchestra when he was in high school. In 1940 he joined the Eddy Howard Orchestra in Chicago. After World War II, where he served with the Army Air Corps, Norman joined the Lawrence Welk Orchestra. Later he rejoined the Eddy Howard Orchestra. After Howard's death in 1963, Norman Lee procured the rights to use the Eddy Howard Orchestra name and the band's arrangements. Lee and the Orchestra became a dance-band staple throughout the U.S. midwest. Based out of Wichita, Kansas, they toured extensively and recorded on their own label, Marian Records. By the late 1960s, Lee dropped the Eddy Howard name and led the orchestra under his own moniker, though several Howard standards remained featured in their repertoire. The organization dissolved in the wake of the murder of Lee along with his wife and publicist by one of the band's former trumpet players on December 6, 1978 He co-authored "Champagne Polka" with Lawrence Welk.