Post by Admin on Jun 18, 2016 10:30:17 GMT -4
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.
Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952. She received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1976 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988.
On November 19, 1952, Bailey married jazz drummer Louie Bellson in London. They adopted a child, Tony, in the mid-1950s, and subsequently a girl, Dee Dee J. Bellson, born April 20, 1960. Tony Bellson died in 2004, and Dee Dee Bellson, at age 49, died July 4, 2009, five months after her father, Louie Bellson, who died on Valentine's Day 2009.
Bailey, a Republican, was appointed by President Richard Nixon as America's "Ambassador of Love" in 1970. She attended several meetings of the United Nations and later appeared in a campaign ad for President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
She was awarded the Bronze Medallion (New York City award) in 1968.
Bailey was a personal friend of the actress and former Pepsi executive, Joan Crawford. In 1969, Crawford and Bailey joined fellow friend, Gypsy Rose Lee, in accepting a USO Award, in the same year Bailey had been recognized as their "Woman of the Year" Upon the passing of Crawford in May 1977, Bailey spoke of Crawford as her "sister", before singing a hymn at her funeral. U.S. Ambassador and American socialite, Perle Mesta, was another close friend of Bailey's. In the last days of Mesta, Bailey visited her frequently and sang hymns for her, as she slowly succumbed to old age, as Bailey would be unable to perform at her Christian Science funeral.
Death
Pearl Bailey died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia on August 17, 1990. Following an autopsy, Dr. Emanuel Rubin, professor and chairman of the Department of Pathology at Jefferson Medical College, announced the cause of death as arteriosclerotic coronary artery disease with significant narrowing of the coronary artery. She is buried at Rolling Green Memorial Park in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
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