Education
Peevey graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Education degree.
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Gayla Peevey
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Career
She is best known for her recording, under her maiden name Gayla Peevey, of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" (Columbia 4-40106, 1953). Peevey recorded the novelty song when she was 10 years old. In 1960, under the name Jamie Horton, she had a minor hit with the song "Robot Manitoba", a Connie Francis cover.
She eventually left teaching and owned her own advertising firm for 15 years.
The Oklahoma City Zoo capitalized upon the popularity of "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" with a fundraising campaign to "buy a hippo for Gayla". The fund raised $3,000 (equivalent to $27,55212 present day), and a baby hippopotamus named Matilda was purchased and given to Peevey which she then donated to the zoo.
The hippopotamus named Matilda spent 45 years in the Oklahoma City Zoo, and then died at age 47 from a heart attack in 1998 while being transferred to the Walt Disney World"s Disney"s Animal Kingdom, in Orlando, Florida.
