Born Catherine Gloria Balotta, Kaye Ballard began her career as a musical comedienne and a member of Spike Jones’s touring ensemble. In 1954 she became the first person to record a newly written song entitled “Fly Me to the Moon”, but didn’t think much of it and hid it away as a B-side. Americans perhaps best knew her for roles in 1960s sitcoms – as a teacher on The Patty Duke Show, a restaurant owner on The Doris Day Show and one of the leads on The Mothers-in-Law. It was a varied career in many ways: she played Lucy van Pelt in the first adaptation of Peanuts (a 1962 LP), starred as Mama Morton in Chicago on Broadway and turned up as a fortune teller in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! She was also a member of mid-70s piss-up Match Game, so I wouldn’t go looking to have her liver donated now she’s died.
Kaye Ballard
November 20, 1925 – January 21, 2019
Died aged 93 (two picks)