Cabaret Singer. Though her national career was brief, she was one of her day's most popular vocalists. Raised in Michigan, she gained her first musical experience with her father's jazz and dance band performing Johnny Mercer's songs and pop standards of the time. At 17, Nancy was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, beginning a lifelong cycle of severe health problems alternating with musical success. Moving to San Francisco at age 22, she worked as a clerk in the daytime and as a night club singer in the evenings; Nancy relocated to New York in 1979 and was soon headlining at all the popular night spots, including the Copa, the Algonquin, and Tavern on the Green, as well as at Carnegie Hall. In 1989, she made her first record, "Beautiful Baby." Its unexpectedly large sales led to bigger audiences at her live performances and to more records. Still, her physical problems continued until an ileostomy in January 1993 relieved her pain and ended her dietary restrictions. Nancy's career then expanded rapidly, leading to nationwide air play of her albums and to multiple television appearances, including several on "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee," with her even singing twice at the White House and becoming a favorite of the Clintons. In March of 1995, Nancy was diagnosed with uterine cancer but delayed surgery in order to make her final album, "Listen To My Heart." Despite the rapid progress of her disease, she continued public performances until the last week of her life with Kathie Lee Gifford, keeping the country updated on her condition. She died of cancer on Dec. 13, just two hours after a priest married her and actor Peter Zapp, whom she had met in San Francisco six months previously. In the years since her death, sales of Nancy's six albums have grown along with those of a posthumous seventh disc, a compilation of songs from her final shows at Tavern on the Green. She received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs in 1996.