Singer Ella Ruth Piggee Dies of Cancer

Pop-jazz singer Ella Ruth Piggee, for the past decade one of the top-drawing names on the local nightclub scene, died Tuesday in her East San Diego home after a long bout with cancer. She was 38.

Over the past few years, Piggee regularly attracted standing-room-only crowds at the Cannibal Bar in the Catamaran Hotel and the Old Pacific Beach Cafe. Her singing style was equal parts jazz, scat, and rhythm and blues. Her repertoire ranged from sultry jazz standards to contemporary pop and pop-jazz hits.

“I remember when she first came to town and played with Butch Lacy at the San Diego City College Theater,” said Mary Sorrentino, at the time operations manager of campus radio station KSDS-FM (88.3).

“I think people initially were a bit put off by her name, but as soon as she opened her mouth she just blew everyone away. And from that instant on, she converted everybody.”

“This lady created a sense of prosperity and hope and pride in the black community,” said Frank Jordan, who gave Piggee her first local booking in August, 1978, at the now-defunct Stargate nightclub in East San Diego.

Piggee’s last public performance was Jan. 27 at the Cannibal Bar. The previous April, she had been diagnosed as having cancer of the colon. On April 29, 1987, she underwent surgery at UCSD Medical Center, where she remained for 17 days.

Piggee had no medical insurance, but a pair of benefits staged by fellow musicians helped pay for her bills while undergoing further chemotherapy treatment in the hospital and recuperating at home.

Despite her illness, Piggee returned to the stage last November with her backup band, Talk of the Town. But two months later, she returned home, this time for good.

“I understand she was in a great deal of pain,” recalled Sorrentino, now program manager with jazz station KIFM-FM (98.1). “She had a hard time walking and standing, and eventually it just became too difficult for her to continue performing.”

Piggee was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 1, 1950. She started singing in junior high school talent shows before graduating to local nightclubs, fronting her own band, Talk of the Town, with Mitch Manker, a former trumpeter with the Ray Charles Orchestra.

After high school, however, the work dried up and Talk of the Town broke up. Piggee briefly took a job as a stenographer before following several of her former bandmates to San Diego in 1978.

“When I first got here, jazz was considered so far out that only a very few people would even give it a chance,” Piggee told The Times in a February, 1986, interview.

“But then came the simplified form of jazz that fuses together traditional jazz with pop and rock ‘n’ roll, and the crowds suddenly got larger and more mainstream.”

Piggee began finding local acclaim as the featured singer in a pop-jazz group led by saxophonist Hollis Gentry and pianist Butch Lacy. In 1982, she rejoined Manker in an incarnation of Talk of the Town, which due to her soulful vocals and charismatic stage persona soon became one of San Diego’s hottest nightclub attractions.

“I tell you, when I first started singing, I wanted to follow in the footsteps of great jazz singers like Sarah Vaughn and Nina Simone,” Piggee said in the 1986 interview. “But I realized I didn’t have the voice they did--I couldn’t even come close.

“So I decided I would make do with what I had and make up for my lack of a great voice by getting closer to the audience, just making sure everyone had a good time.”

Piggee is survived by her mother, Doris Piggee of Des Moines, and two brothers and a sister. At her request, no memorial or funeral services will be held.

“Ella Ruth wanted her friends to remember her as she was when she was performing; she didn’t want people to mourn her passing, but to remember her as she lived and performed,” said Sandy Keeton, Piggee’s cousin and roommate.

Keeton added that shortly before her death, Piggee requested that memorial contributions be sent to Hospice of San Diego, 3840 Calle Fortunada, San Diego 92123, or to the UCSD Medical Center’s Cancer Center Foundation, 225 Dickinson St., H-233, San Diego 92103.