Gayla Peevey was born on 8 March 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. She has been married to Clifford Henderson since 25 August 1963. They have one child.
Sang "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" (Columbia, 1953) and raised $3000 in the "buy a hippo for Gayla" campaign, which resulted in the local zoo receiving a baby hippopotamus named Matilda. Gayla presented this hippo to the zoo.
