US Singer Teresa Brewer, who topped the charts in the 1950s with such hits as Till I Waltz Again with You and performed with jazz legends Count Basie and Duke Ellington, died Wednesday. She was 76.

Brewer died at her home in New Rochelle of a neuromuscular disease, family spokesman Bill Munroe said. Her four daughters were at her bedside.

Brewer had scores of hits in the 1950s and a burgeoning film career but pared down her public life to raise her children. She re-emerged a decade later to perform with jazz greats Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis.

"She was just a wonderful, lovely lady," said Munroe, a longtime family friend. "Her career was always a hobby with her; her family always came first. She always considered her legacy not to be the gold records and the TV appearances, but her loving family."

(Agencies via Chinadaily.com.cn October 19, 2007)