Laurie Beebe Lewis is one of the latter-day singers for the Mamas & The Papas and the Buckinghams. The local singer and keyboardist is known for playing in groups such as Queen Divas of the Universe, alongside Runaways songwriter Roni Lee.
Lewis began as a guitarist. "I graduated from guitar to double bass. I got sick of bass and went back to guitar and my sister took up bass. We started a band called Pitch-blende. My mother loved Scrabble. She found the word in the dictionary. We bought a school bus and we cleaned it out and we were the original Partridge Family. My mother drove and my sister and I were in a band. We traveled all over Michigan. We toured with Bob Seeger, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, the MC5."
After high school she logged about a half million miles playing piano in a Dixieland jazz band. "And after that, I hooked up with the Spinners. Then Les Elgart, the big band leader. From there, I joined the Buckinghams. We recorded an album and toured with the Mamas and the Papas. When the tour was over the Buckinghams went back to being an all guy band. So I looked at San Diego and I married my husband and I started singing with the Mamas and the Papas. I replaced Mackenzie Phillips. That was for about a year until she had her baby and got clean and sober from all the drugs she was on."