Loretta Gail Ables was born in
Stockton, California to a
Filipino father and a mother of mixed Asian and European descent. She has an older sister and brother. Her father was 25 years older than her mother, and eventually the couple divorced. Her mother remarried, and Ables Sayre has two younger half-siblings. She was raised in
Hawaii after her stepfather, who was in the
United States Navy, was transferred there when Ables Sayre was six years old. She attended
Pearl Harbor Elementary School, Aliamanu Intermediate, and
Admiral Arthur W. Radford High School in
Honolulu, participating in school plays and choirs. As a small child, inspired by her mother's
Dinah Washington and
Sarah Vaughan recordings, Ables Sayre already knew that she wanted to become a singer. Ables Sayre began to build her singing career immediately after high school while working in hotel jobs. She soon became the opening singer for a hotel performer's act. In 1985, with Honolulu Theater for Youth, Ables Sayre appeared in
Song for the Navigator, which toured Micronesia, Australia and throughout the U.S., including performances at the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 1989, she played Effie White in Tommy Aguilar's 1989 production of
Dreamgirls at the Hawaii Theater. The same year, she became the featured vocalist at the
Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki, where she performed for 10 years. She was voted "Favorite Female Vocalist" by the readers of
Honolulu Magazine in 1993 in its "Best of the Best" issue. ==Television, commercials and recent years==