Born Clementine Dinah Hitching in Middlesex, England, October 28, 1927, Ms. Laine spent her childhood studying singing and dancing, but started her career as a hairdresser, hat-trimmer, librarian, and pawnbroker. At the age of 24, she joined the Johnny Dankworth Seven, the beginning of a lifelong romantic and professional life with the jazz composer and musician—the two married in 1958, seven years after she first joined his group.