Leigh Harris (July 27, 1954 – September 21, 2019) was a New Orleans R&B and jazz singer and songwriter. Early life Harris was born July 27, 1954, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Gertrude Morris Middleton and Allan Joseph Harris, Jr. Leigh was the eldest of three, her sisters being Sally and Ellen. Her father, a manufacturer's representative for the Allan J. Harris Company by trade, was a clarinetist, with a love for Big Band and Dixieland music. Her mother was founder and director of the Little School (a ministry of St. Martin's Church) where she also taught. Harris showed talent at a very young age. Shortly after her first birthday, she was humming lullabies back to her parents; six months later, she'd added the lyrics... "and I haven't ever really shut my face since" she told poet John Sinclair in a 1999 interview. She performed in plays in the backyard of her family's home in Old Metairie, and was writing folk songs when she was a student at St. Martin's. Her love of rock and roll was galvanized at age 10 after she saw The Beatles perform in City Park. She performed in public for the first time at age 11 in February 1966 singing and playing her guitar at the Tulane University Student Center in their monthly Folk Festival. The hootenanny was broadcast throughout campus and into the dorms of Tulane by WTUL radio. Career Harris was nicknamed "Little Queenie" by a former boyfriend. It was a "nickname somebody made up to get me mad, but I thought was really funny", she later told John Rockwell from the New York Times. Harris first performed as "Little Queenie" on April Fool's Day 1975 at Jed's Bar on Oak Street in uptown New Orleans. Li'l Queenie and the Percolators By mid-1977, Harris had a regular Monday night set at Tipitina's with keyboardist John Magnie (also known as Johnny Zimple), who later played with The Subdudes. With the addition of other musicians, this collaboration soon evolved into Li'l Queenie and the Percolators, later called Little Queenie and the Percolators. The band played throughout Louisiana, including regular gigs at New Orleans clubs Tipitina's, Jimmy's, The Dream Palace and Snug Harbor and performed at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The first incarnation of Li'l Queenie and the Percolators in 1977 consisted of Harris (vocals), John Magnie (keyboards and vocals), John