Education
Born in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she attended George Westinghouse High School and studied music at the Filion School of Music in Pittsburgh.
Born in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she attended George Westinghouse High School and studied music at the Filion School of Music in Pittsburgh.
4 hit, "The Late, Late Show". Later she performed regularly in the Hill District, a jazz hotspot, as a vocalist with the Joe Westray Orchestra, a popular Pittsburgh orchestra. She next spent several years in the nightclub circuit in such cities as Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Saint Louis.
While in New York, she was noticed singing at a Harlem nightclub called the Baby Grand by Dave Cavanaugh, a producer for Capitol Records.
The marriage ultimately ended in divorce. She released several critically acclaimed albums in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including: The Late, Late Show (1957), whose title track was her biggest hit, In the Night (1957), a collaboration with pianist George Shearing, (1958) and Dakota at Storyville (1961), a live album recorded at the Storyville jazz club in Boston.
In the mid-1960s Staton moved to England, where she recorded the album Dakota ′67. Returning to the United States in the early 1970s, she continued to record semi-regularly, her recordings taking an increasingly strong gospel and blues influence.
She suffered a stroke in 1999, after which her health deteriorated.
Staton died in New York City aged 76 in 2007.