If San Francisco jazz had its own Mount Rushmore, Pat Yankee would be on it. Born in Lodi, California, Pat saw a medicine show at age seven and told her father, “I want to be on the stage when I grow up.” Unlike most of us who never realize our childhood dreams, Pat launched into a career dancing and singing at age eight and is still in demand as a vocalizing Red Hot Mama.
Over the course of those decades, Pat Yankee appeared in a movie (It’s Great to Be Young), toured with Ted Lewis, danced with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and from 1958-1962 and from 1968-1972 was vocalist with Turk Murphy. There was a ten-year intermission when she and her husband moved to Spain—to raise pigs. Afterward, stage tributes to Bessie Smith and Sophie Tucker (who once set Pat up on a date with George Raft) followed.
