RIP Peggy Clark

Margaret ‘Peggy’ Clark Schwartz (extreme right) was a singer and member of the famed Clark Sisters, later known as The Sentimentalists. She started performing with her sisters at age four. Hailing from Grand Forks, North Dakota, Peggy was only twenty-three years of age when she signed with the Tommy Dorsey Band to replace the popular Pied Pipers, after the Pipers had quit Dorsey’s band to go out on their own.

“In those days, you had to be young and stupid. You also had to be pretty needy … it was almost comical when you look at it; it was part of the growing-up process!"  ~ Peggy Clark 

Outside of the group, Peggy was a successful studio singer for over four decades. She was also a member of The Randy Van Horne Singers, who sang the themes from The Jetsons and The Flintstones, and made regular appearances on Nat King Cole’s TV program and and served as background singer for all seasons of The Carol Burnett Show. 

In 1972, she appeared on “Here’s Lucy” in “A Home is Not An Office” (HL S5;E4) as June, a member of Lucy’s Canary Club. They sang “Camptown Races” and “Hello Lucy” to the tune of “Hello Dolly”. 

Her husband was Wilbur Schwartz who was lead clarinet for the Glenn Miller Band and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra and an extremely successful session musician. Together they had three children and their daughter Nan Schwartz is a Grammy winning composer-arranger.