Peggy King, the singer who became a star of 1950s television as “Pretty Perky Peggy King” on The George Gobel Show, has died at the age of 96. She died on Sunday, October 25, 2026, at the Saunders House assisted living facility in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, after a long illness with Alzheimer’s disease, her publicist Alan Eicher said.
Radio, big bands and Gobel
King was born on February 16, 1930, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to Floyd Henry King and Margaret Finan. She graduated from Ravenna High School in Ohio, sang on radio in Cleveland and was a regular on CBS’s The Mel Tormé Show. She also had a successful commercial jingle for Hunt’s Tomato Sauce.
She joined The George Gobel Show in 1954 and stayed until 1957. Gobel’s nickname for her, “Pretty Perky Peggy King”, stuck for the rest of her career. She was nominated for an Emmy as best female singer in 1955, sang “Count Your Blessings” at the 1955 Academy Awards and co-hosted the Emmys in 1958.
MGM and Columbia Records
An MGM contract in 1952 led to a singing cameo in Vincente Minnelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful, and she also appeared in Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy and played a stewardess in the 1957 thriller Zero Hour!. Mitch Miller signed her to Columbia Records, where she made two best-selling albums and a string of hit singles. The composer Arthur Hamilton wrote “Cry Me a River” for her, but Miller would not let her record it.
On television she starred with Tab Hunter in the musical Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, and appeared on American Bandstand, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Jack Benny Program, Maverick and Dragnet, among many others.
Later years
King was among the first entertainers honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2010. She kept performing in the Philadelphia area, New York and Los Angeles until 2014, and her last album, Songs a la King, was released in 2016. She is survived by her daughter, Suzy Rudofker, and son-in-law, Dwain Goforth.