Phyllis Jeanne Creore Westerman
"Miss Television 1939"
Original "Canteen Girl"
Passed peacefully 100 years young
At her lovely, well-attended memorial, October 15 at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, Kathy Conry led our group singing Phyllis' signature song, This Is My Wish, and Michele Mason spoke on behalf of our women
MARION RAGSDALE
Passed Nov. 14, 2015
pictured below at her 90th in 2014
ALICE MIDDLETON
Passed 2015
pictured below with her husband, Arthur Anderson at our Centennial.
Many of us were present at Alice's memorial and again turned up when Arthur passed a year later. Both are dearly missed . . .
Daughter, AMY RAGSDALE, 2017 has this to say:
"In many ways, I have no doubt, the Rehearsal Club saved my mothers life. Marion found a haven and a family that she most likely had never known, or ever would. Viva la Club!"
It's also noted that Marion submitted her story on Anna Russell for our Cinderella book literally on her deathbed. Then requested donations be made in her name to our documentary. May she rest in peace.
REMEMBERING DONNA DOUGLAS!
1933 - 2015
(pictured right promoting Bells Are Ringing 1960)
Donna, a Rehearsal Club Alum, has supported all of us from the very beginning as part of our press kit. Betty Biggers Galvano, too, remembers her fondly in her upcoming memoir as part of our book, tentatively titled "Cinderellas of West 53rd Street."
Donna Douglas, best known for her role as the tomboy daughter Elly May Clampett on the 1960s fish-out-of-water CBS sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, died on New Year's Day, according to WAFB Channel 9 in Louisiana, which cited family members. The actress was 81.
Featured in our "Cinderella" Book
(RC 74-5) Ramona L. Brooks (Stubblefield), 63, whose talent shone on the Broadway stage and as one of Barry Manilow's Flashy Ladies, died from cancer, according to her brother Glenn, on June 2 in Heartland Hospice in Oregon.
See more at: Obituary on Toledo Blade
View on www.legacy.com
Barbara Murphy Vigliano
1923 - 2013
LORI MARCH 1923 - 2013
Lori March Scourby, an actress known as the "First Lady of Daytime Television" for her decades of work in serials, has died. She was 90. The wife of the late Alexander Scourby, an actor and narrator of numerous audiobooks including the King James Bible, died in her sleep on March 19.
As Lori March, she played Valerie Hill Ames Northcoate on CBS’ THE SECRET STORM from 1964 to 1974 (Alexander played her husband on the show for a couple of years).
Many of our women attended Barbara's mass and viewing in New York. Kathy Conry brought a Calla lilly plant with a lovely note that the "Calla lilies are always in bloom for Barbara" -- perfectly representative of the women of the RC.
PAULETTE ATTIE
1936 - 2009
Well-respected acting coach, member of Actors Studio with a long line of professional credits including Broadway, daytime dramas and everything in between. Equally important, however, was how greatly loved she was by her Rehearsal Club sisters, her many students, Actors Studio members and other Manhattan Plaza residents who knew her and her dog, Pearl, as family.
Paulette was one of the ladies invited to tea back in 2006 when we first came together. Fans continue to maintain a site dedicated to her memory: www.pauletteattie.com The portrait above was done by Peter Max
JAN OWEN
1921 -2017
Melissa Taylor MacKenzie
Died 2003
FANCES YEEND
1913 -2008
An American classical soprano who had an active international career as a concert and opera singer during the 1940s through the 1960s.
ANNA RUSSELL
1911 -2006
Frances, Bibi & Anna were great pals - Russell became known for her deadpan humour, including her disbelieving emphasis of the absurd in well accepted stories and her mockery of
pretension.
BETSY KAY FINCH
1926 -2019
Former Rockette, Betsy ran Betsye Kay's School of Dance in Lakeland, FL, wrote for the Lakeland Ledger & was active in much theater in the area.
Her daughter, Alexis, has formed a foundation funding deserving high school seniors in the Lakeland, FL area, majoring in dance or musical theatre at post-secondary institutions.
BIBI OSTERWALD
1920 -2002
"Heart & soul of the RC - laughing, joking and kind-hearted." - Marie Howard