Bea Benaderet

Beatrice Benaderet ( BEN-ə-DERR-ət; April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968) was an American radio and television actress and voice actress. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Area theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career that spanned over three decades. Benaderet first specialized in voiceover work in the golden age of radio, appearing on numerous programs while working with noted comedians of the era such as Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Lucille Ball, and her expertise in dialect and characterization led to her becoming Warner Bros.' leading voice of female characters in their animated cartoons of the early 1940s through the mid-1950s. Benaderet was then a prominent figure on television in situation comedies, first with The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show from 1950 to 1958, for which she earned two Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In the 1960s, she had regular roles in four series up until her death from lung cancer in 1968, including the commercial successes The Beverly Hillbillies, The Flintstones, and her best known role as Kate Bradley in Petticoat Junction. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring her work in television. 2Early life Beatrice Benaderet was born on April 4, 1906 in New York City. Her mother, Margaret O'Keefe (1888–1936), was Irish-American, and her father, Samuel David Benaderet (1884–1954), a Turkish Sephardic emigrant, was a tobacconist who relocated the family from New York to San Francisco, California in 1915 after his participation in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. The same year, he opened a smoke shop that would conduct business in the city for the next 65 years, making it the oldest such retailer in California at the time of its closure in 1980.Benaderet studied voice and the piano at a young age, and her participation in a children's radio production of The Beggar's Opera at the age of 12 attracted the attention of the manager of radio station KGO, who invited her to join as a junior vocalist. Benaderet graduated from S