A native of Columbus, Ohio, husky-voiced brunette Sally Stuart wanted to be a brain surgeon when she was a child. Her mother wanted her to be a concert pianist. Instead, she ended up singing for Sammy Kaye’s orchestra, which she had joined by October 1943. It was Kaye, with his predilection for alliterative names, who gave her the professional moniker of Sally Stuart, having also named his other singers Nancy Norman, Betty Barton, and Mary Marlowe. Stuart appeared regularly on Kaye’s radio program through the end of 1945.
Stuart left Kaye at the beginning of 1946, joining Vaughn Monroe’s orchestra in January, staying only until March. By April, she was appearing on Danny O’Neil’s five-day-a-week CBS radio variety show, remaining there through at least August. Publicity for the show credited her as “Sally Stuart and her sons,” though its unsure who her “sons” were. They were most likely a backing group. By December, Stuart had joined Blue Barron’s band. She disappears from history at that point.
In September 1944, model agent Harry Conover signed Stuart, who was still with Kaye, to do “occasional cover girl assignments.” A newspaper article in late 1943 identified Stuart as nineteen years old. She attended St. Mary’s of the Spring College for Women before joining Kaye.