US pop singer Brewer dies aged 76

Brewer made her first recording in 1949 at the age of 18

Teresa Brewer, one of the most popular US pop singers of the 1950s, has died in New York at the age of 76.

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1931, Brewer topped the charts with such hits as Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now and Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall.

She sang with Tony Bennett and had a burgeoning film career before scaling back her work to raise a family.

She re-emerged in the 1970s to perform with jazz greats Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis.

Her other hits include Ricochet Romance, A Sweet Old-Fashioned Girl and Music Music Music.

'Career was a hobby'

Brewer died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, a New York City suburb, of a neuromuscular disease, her family said.

She is survived by four daughters, four grandsons and five great-grandchildren.

"Her career was always a hobby with her," said family friend Bill Munroe. "Her family always came first."

Over the years Brewer performed on TV with Mel Torme, sang with Tony Bennett and won a national poll to be cast in 1953 film Those Redheads from Seattle.