Patti Page, the "Singing Rage" who stumbled across Tennessee Waltz and made it one of the best-selling recordings ever, has died. She was 85.

Page died on New Year's Day in Encinitas, California, according to publicist Schatzi Hageman.

American popular music singer Patti Page in the late 1940s. Page got her start on a radio program sponsored by the Page Milk Company, hence her stage name.

Page was the top-selling female singer of the 1950s with more than 100 million records sold. Her most enduring songs remain Tennessee Waltz, one of two songs the state of Tennessee has officially adopted, and How Much Is That Doggie in the Window.

"I was a kid from Oklahoma who never wanted to be a singer, but was told I could sing," she said in a 1999 interview. "And things snowballed."