A card-carrying member of jazz's "cool school" of vocalists, thanks in large part to the boozy title track of her 1955 hit album Something Cool, June Christy was born Shirley Luster in Illinois and went on to deliver some of jazz's most memorable after-midnight balladry. Tagged as Anita O'Day's replacement in Stan Kenton's orchestra (with whom she recorded the million-seller "Tampico"), Christy took her warm, natural voice to places other singers couldn't reach.