Peg LaCentra

• Name — Peg LaCentra • Birth Name — Margherita Maria Francesca LaCentra • Born — April 10, 1910 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — June 1, 1996 (aged 86) • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Other Names — Barbara Fulton • Occupation — Singer, actress • Children — 1

Born on April 10, 1910 in Boston, LaCentra studied at the Fenway Academy of Dramatic Art and the New England Conservatory of Music and graduated from Katharine Gibbs College.

LaCentra worked as an announcer at WNAC and performed on WBZ radio in Boston before moving to New York in 1931 to work on network radio broadcasts. She performed on NBC programs, including Beauty Box Theater, Circus Night in Silvertown, and Lucky Smith. In 1934, LaCentra was billed as Barbara Fulton when she sang with Leo Reisman's orchestra on radio. Use of the pseudonym was necessary because Reisman's sponsor was a competitor of the one for which she sang on another program. In December 1934, she began singing with Harry Reser and his orchestra on a new weekly program on NBC. In 1935, a group of five radio stars selected LaCentra and Bob Lawrence to star in a new program, The Radio City Party, on NBC-Blue. Also in 1935, she was the leading lady on Max Baer's radio program. She gained her own program, The Peg LaCentra Show, on NBC in 1938, a year in which she also sang on For Men Only on NBC. LaCentra was one of the stars of the Gulden's Mustard Serenade, a 15-minute variety show broadcast on NBC twice weekly in 1940. She and singer Jerry Wayne co-starred in a twice-weekly musical program on CBS in 1944. As a dramatic actress, she frequently played supporting roles in Mutual's romantic thriller, The Modern Adventures of Casanova (1952). In addition to her work on network radio, LaCentra recorded programs for NBC's Thesaurus music service.

LaCentra appeared on Broadway as Mrs. Hamilton in The Patriots (1943). In 1957, she appeared in a production of the romantic comedy Janus at the Pasadena Playhouse. On television, she played Amanda on the CBS comedy series The Marge and Gower Champion Show (1957).

LaCentra married actor Paul Stewart in 1939. For years, they had a commuter marriage, as she worked in New York and he made films in Hollywood.

On June 1, 1996, LaCentra died at age 86 of a heart attack at her home in Los Angeles.