My father will be very saddened to hear this news. She was just a few months older than him and he knew her a bit as a teenager through community theater. She was always one of his favorite performers, and he and my late mom saw her in her breakthrough role in Pal Joey on their honeymoon in NYC, and she came out from backstage to have her picture taken with them. Many years later, during a trip to visit relatives in NYC, Dad splurged and took us to see her at the Carlyle Hotel. Her show was wonderful, amusing, and engrossing, but even better was the champagne she bought for our table, and her coming out to drink a glass with us and talk to my folks between sets. She was indeed every bit a legend, and deservedly so.
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