Dame Vera Lynn, who comforted Britain with 'We'll Meet Again' since World War II, has died at 103

Dame Vera Lynn, the singer whose songs helped boost British morale in World War II, died early Thursday. She was 103. Lynn, most famous for the song "We'll Meet Again," earned the nickname "the Forces' Sweetheart" after being voted the favorite artist of British troops in a 1939 Daily Express poll. She serenade British forces during the war and hosted a wildly popular BBC radio show, "Sincerely Yours," where she would sing requests and send messages to British forces overseas. "Winston Churchill was my opening act," she once quipped.

Lynn's other hits included "The White Cliffs of Dover," "I'll Be Seeing You," and "There'll Always Be An England," and her career did not end with Nazi Germany's defeat. Her song "Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart" was the first British hit to top the U.S. Billboard charts in 1952, and she hit No. 1 in 1954 with "My Son, My Son," The Associated Press reports.

But "We'll Meet Again" is the song that fans wanted to hear and sing along to up until her death. She was featured in a virtual duet of the song with mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Queen Elizabeth II invoked the lyrics in her rare address to Britain during the darkest early days of the coronavirus lockdown. In May, Lynn's greatest hits collection 100 hit No. 30 on the U.K. charts, making her the oldest artist ever to crack the Top 40, beating her own record.

Lynn was born Vera Margaret Welch on March 20, 1917, in London's working class East Ham neighborhood. She started performing at age 7, dropped out of school at 11 to tour with a variety show, was singing with a band at age 17, and was already somewhat famous when World War II broke out. Lynn, made a Dame of the British Empire in 1975, spent her golden years in Ditchling, a village about 40 miles south of London. Fans, including various stars and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, paid tribute to her Thursday.