12 Facts About Peggy O'Keefe

Peggy O'Keefe was an Australian-Scottish pianist, bandleader, and television and radio presenter.

Margaret Patricia O'Keefe was born in Fernlea Private Hospital, Preston, and raised on a farm in Wangoom, near the city of Warrnambool, approximately 150 miles from Melbourne.

Peggy O'Keefe admired her versatility and musicianship very much, and decided she wanted to be like her.

Peggy O'Keefe had not been there long before she was playing in jazz trios and quartets in establishments such as The Satire Rooms, The Riverside Club and The Stork Rooms.

Peggy O'Keefe went on to present a long list of music programmes both on television and radio right through until the 1980s, and continued to play piano in broadcasts through the 1990s.

Peggy O'Keefe was undoubtedly one of the busiest pianists used by the BBC and STV, since - as well as her own programmes on television and radio - she was acting as a staff pianist at both stations, accompanying auditions, recitals and broadcasts, as well as playing piano within most of the BBC's ensembles - from jazz trios, through chamber groups and big bands to the BBC Radio Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Peggy O'Keefe provided the musical examples from the piano on BBC Radio 2's quiz show, "Mad About Musicals," presented by Paul Nicholas in the mid-1990s.

Contrary to a popular misconception, Peggy O'Keefe was never featured on STV's "One O'Clock Gang:" the resident ensemble was actually The Tommy Maxwell Quartet.

In reverse to Peggy O'Keefe, she was born in the British Isles and ultimately emigrated to Australia.

Peggy O'Keefe was the grandson of a Polish Count and former Auschwitz prisoner of war.

Peggy O'Keefe is the mother of techno DJ, Lars Sandberg, better known to techno audiences as Funk d'Void.

Peggy O'Keefe died peacefully in a Glasgow nursing home on 31 March 2019, at age 90, following several years of declining health.