Carole Simpson born circa 1928

Carole Simpson (born c. 1928 – 25 January 2013) was an American pop and jazz musician (vocals, piano). A gorgeous, glamorous blonde, she had an intimate singing style not far from June Christy and a pianistic approach that borrowed most heavily from George Shearing and Erroll Garner. 

Carole Simpson was born in Anna, Illinois, began piano lessons at five, voice lessons at twelve. She started as a piano cocktail singer at Hotel Wisconsin in Milwaukee, until she joined Billy May s band as a featured vocalist in 1950 but never recorded. Then came several long and sometimes weary years of clubbing it around the country, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, never truly deciding whether she preferred singing or playing piano. 

Eventually, she impressed Tutti Camarata when he heard Carole sing and brought her to the attention of Dave Cavanaugh at Capitol Records, who recorded her first album in the summer of 1957 All About Carol, with pop standards such as "Oh! Look at Me Now", "There Will Never Be Another You" and "You Make Me Feel So Young". The arrangers and directors of the studio session were Eddie Cano and Lennie Niehaus. 

                                   

After listening to the album, Steve Allen booked her for his TV show, and in 1960, as soon as he knew Carol s contract with Capitol was over, invited her to record a selection of his compositions for her second LP, Singin' and Swingin' issued on the Tops label. These included  "This Could Be the Start of Something Big," the theme song of Allen's NBC talk show, and "Oh What a Night for Love," a song that was also recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, and Frances Wayne. 

She married drummer Billy Stafford, with whom she had children. Apparently, motherhood took her out of the full-time club work world, and her musical life revolved more around playing in churches and directing choirs. In that community, she was known as Carolyn Stafford. In 1990, she recorded the live album Live (And Otherwise), a recording from the Vine Street Bar and Grill in Los Angeles. As Carolyn Stafford, she also conducted choirs and sang in churches. Due to a stroke, she no longer performed as a singer in 1999, but as a pianist; among other things, she played on the West Coast with guitarist Skip Heller after the turn of the millennium. As she got older, she played fewer jazz jobs. 

It was Reno where she ended up, and she died there of natural causes on January 25, 2013. There was no obit in the Los Angeles Times, nor was there a big musical tribute at the Musicians Union building just down the street from the big round Capitol Tower where she made her great record. There was a mention on a website that was very light on biographical data. It did mention she passed while under hospice care. 

(Edited from Wikipedia &, All About Jazz)