Ruth Gaylor born 5 May 1918

Ruth Gaylor (1918 – 1972) was an American big band vocalist active from 1935 – 1945.

Vocalist Ruth Gaylor, who was born in Brooklyn, sang and recorded with the Hudson-​DeLange Orchestra from 1935 to early 1937 before joining Mitchell Ayres’ group. 

Early 1938 found her working for Will Haynes, but she’d joined Bunny Berigan by mid-​year, with whose band she both recorded and appeared on their radio program.

                         

By January 1940, Gaylor was with Teddy Powell, leaving in early 1942. By May 1944, she had become part of Hal McIntyre’s orchestra, appearing with them in two films. Gaylor put in her notice to leave McIntyre at the end of 1945 in order to spend time with her husband, who was returning home from the war, but when he contracted yellow fever and had to stay abroad, she rescinded her notice and stayed for a few more months, finally leaving in early 1946.

Ruth with bandleader, Eddie Deange

Gaylor travelled to Europe with McIntyre’s band during a 1945 USO tour. She was so cheerful and uncomplaining about the hardships of travelling along the front that American General William R. Schmidt pinned two general’s stars on her USO uniform and gave her a letter with permission to wear them.

Billboard noted that she had been replaced in the McIntyre band by February 1946 and seems to have no references to her after that year. Whitburn cites her as having died in New York, 21 March 1972 at age 53.

And that dear friend is where the trail goes cold.

As you can see from above short biography, there’s not much information readily available. So a big thanks to Autumn Lansing @ BandChirps.com with the only major snippet I could find.