Judy Kreston was the daughter of concert pianist Gitta Gradova and Dr. Maurice H. Cottle. She was born and raised in Chicago and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. She received a master's in psychology from Columbia University.

As a teenager, Ms. Kreston sang at weddings and bar mitzvahs as well as in stage shows. She left home to join the Shrine Circus, forsaking a role in the national company of My Fair Lady to do so. She toured military bases with a USO troupe, playing Laurie in Oklahoma! She soon moved to New York, performing in the Catskills and eventually becoming a well-known singer on the New York cabaret scene.

When her mother saw the Chelsea building her daughter bought in 1969, she cried, Ms. Kreston recalled. "I never thought a child of mine would have to live like this," Ms. Kreston remembered her mother saying.

In 1990, she married David Lahm, son of Dorothy Fields, who wrote the lyrics to "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Big Spender," among other songs.

In 1991, she performed Remembering Felicia Sanders, a tribute to Sanders, a cabaret singer in the 1950s and '60s who died in 1974. In 1987, she sang a program focused on the songs of Anthony Newley.

She is survived by her husband, David Lahm, her daughter, Betsy Shankin-Morehouse (TJ Morehouse), her two grandchildren Rachel & Elijah, and her brother, Dr. Thomas J. Cottle, of Boston.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, Dec. 28, 2009, at 11:30 AM, at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Avenue.