Singer Margaret Whiting dies at 86

ENGLEWOOD, N.J., Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Margaret Whiting, whose singing career spanned six decades and turned out a dozen gold records, has died in New Jersey, her daughter said. She was 86.

Whiting, who continued to perform at cabarets 60 years after she began her singing career at USO shows in World War II, died Monday of natural causes at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., her daughter, Deborah Whiting, told The New York Times.

Margaret Whiting's parents, Richard and Eleanor Youngblood Whiting, were both in the music business as a songwriter and a manager of singers. An aunt performed in vaudeville.

Margaret Whiting first met Johnny Mercer when she was 7. He became a friend, a collaborator and later a stand-in for her father, who died in 1938, the Los Angeles Times reported.

She was 18 when she recorded her first hit, "That Old Black Magic" by Mercer and Harold Arlen. In the course of her career, she recorded 700 songs and had a dozen gold records.

"I like to dramatize songs -- to tell stories," she said in a 1985 interview with the Chicago Tribune. "I look for a terrific lyric and a wonderful melody, the kind you hear once or twice and your ears go up."

She continued to perform into her 80s, mostly singing Mercer songs and telling stories about him. In 1997, she starred in a Broadway revue based on Mercer songs.

Margaret Whiting was married four times. Deborah Whiting is her only survivor, The New York Times said.