And she can cook, too!

 Even though we'll hear only one Nancy Walker tune

this Sunday,

I found some great pics of her

and couldn't wait.

She was born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philly,

but she and her sister grew up "on the road"

touring with their vaudevillian father,

Dewey Barto (his stage name).

Both Nancy and her dad were on the short side, 4'11" tall.

She won her first role on Broadway due to a mix up

with another actress whose name was Nancy Walker...

so Ann became a Walker

for her Broadway debut in Best Foot Forward, 1941.

Nancy also did the movie version just 2 years later.

 Below, on Broadway with June Allyson and Victoria Schools,

in Best Foot.

 

 Above in the movie version

with June and Gloria DeHaven.

 Subsequent Broadway shows included

a starring role in Look Ma, I'm Dancin' (1948)

and On The Town (1944).

 Below, Barefoot Boy With Cheek (1947)

 Television appearances included

Family Affair with Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot (above)

and briefly her own series, below, with

Ken Olfson, Beverly Archer, and William Daniels.

 And then her Bounty Paper Towel commercials!

The role of Valerie Harper's mom,

in The Mary Tyler Moore Show

and its sequel, Rhoda,

is how most people knew Nancy come the 1970s:

Ida Morgenstern!

As Yvette, the deaf mute cook in Murder By Death, 1976,

and below with "blind" butler Alec Guiness.

And dancing with a much taller Muppet.

10 movies, over 20 stage plays, and a bevy of television...

Nancy passed away in 1992,

at the age of 69,

after 55 years in the bizness.