Cathy Lind Hayes announced the death of her mother, Mary Healy, on Thursday.
Cathy Lind Hayes said Mary Healy died of natural causes on Tuesday at 96, and said that she was with her at a health care facility in Calabasas, northwest of Los Angeles, when she passed away.
Mary Healy was a legend from a bygone era of stage and screen.
Healy was a celebrated actress and singer who even once starred with Orson Welles on Broadway.
Cathy Lind Hayes said of her mother, “She sang. She danced. She was funny. She was a straight man. My mom was a really charming, gracious woman until the last day.”
What sweet words to memorialize a great woman of the world of entertainment.
Mary Healy was discovered while singing at the Roosevelt New Orleans hotel while she was a resident of New Orleans.
From there, she went on to star in the 1938 film, Josetta, and many films in the 1980’s.
But film wasn’t her only passion. Between 1942 and 1958, she starred in four Broadway shows, one of which was opposite Orson Welles in the Cole Porter musical Around the World. In that show, she played an Indian princess, Aouda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Y0NRtRlQk
In 1939 Healy was performing with Grace Hayes, a vaudevillian and Los Angeles area nightclub owner, when she was introduced to Hayes’ son, Peter.
The two were married and a whole new career path for the two of them together took off.
According to Cathy Lind Hayes, they performed exclusively together until Peter died in 1998.
They co-starred in the 1953 movie The Five Thousand Fingers of Doctor T. On the small screen they starred together on The Peter Lind Hayes Show, which was a variety series that ran from 1950-51. From there they starred together in the 1960-61 sitcom Peter Loves Mary, and they also appeared on various game shows.
After they got out of the TV business, the couple had their own radio show and went on to live in Las Vegas to perform at The Sands.
Mary Healy published a memoir, Moments to Remember with Peter and Mary — Our Life in Show Business from Vaudeville to Video, in 2004.
Healy is also survived by a son, Peter Michael Hayes, and a grandchild.
What a sweet story! Condolences to Cathy Lind Hayes on the death of her amazing mother.