Obituaries

Actress and vaudeville star June Havoc, who was also sister of famed stripper Gypsie Rose Lee, has died. She was believed to be 97 years old. Her sister died when she was still in her fifties.

Article:

In “Gypsy” — whose book, by Arthur Laurents, was based on a memoir by her sister, the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee — the adorable, pampered June (now known as Dainty June, having outgrown the baby billing) quits show business to elope with one of the boys in her act and is never heard from again. In real life, not long after her sister rose to burlesque fame in the 1930s, June established a solid career on Broadway and in Hollywood films.

Ms. Havoc did not have an easy time of it at first. The little girl who had earned as much as $1,500 a week on the vaudeville stage —when the average American worker earned roughly that much annually — spent her teenage years on the edge of destitution.

...

After her teenage elopement, Ms. Havoc remarried twice. She married Donald Staley Gibbs, an aspiring writer, in the 1930s and divorced him when she went to Hollywood. Her third husband was William Spier, a radio and television director and producer. They were married from 1947 until his death in 1973. Her daughter, April Hyde, died in 1998.

Over the years Ms. Havoc tended to be diplomatic when speaking of her mother and her sister. But in a 2003 interview with Alex Witchel of The New York Times, she was particularly straightforward:

“My sister was beautiful and clever — and ruthless. My mother was endearing and adorable — and lethal. They were the same person,” she said. “I was the fool of the family. The one who thought I really was loved for me, for myself.”

_____

Rock photographer Jim Marshall, 74.
_____

Liz Carpenter, 89, feminist and aide to LBJ:

A dedicated feminist, Ms. Carpenter was a founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus and joint chairwoman of ERAmerica, an organization that unsuccessfully fought for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.

Before joining the White House staff, she had covered Washington as a reporter for a news service she founded with her husband, Les Carpenter.

Widely known for her caustic and sometimes bawdy wit, Ms. Carpenter was irreverent about herself and her access to power during the Johnson years in Washington. She was also one of the few White House staff members who had no qualms about giving as good as she got, no matter the source.

“Why don’t you use your head?” Mr. Johnson once bellowed at her. She bellowed back: “I’m too busy trying to use yours!”

_____